A Neverending Storm
by Rushe84
Summary: Noriyama Junichi is a vulgar young man who grew up in Sunagakure, but instead becomes a ninja in the Hidden Rain. However, his appearance in the chuunin exam sparks controversy between the two nations over who rightfully owns the powerful young ninja.
1. Exile from a False Eden

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other affiliated characters, locations or ideas. I do own all original content including characters, locations, jutsu and plot lines. Likeness to any real people or places is unintentional and coincidental. This work of fiction is rated M for adult language, adult situations, and heavy violence. Pairing will be OC-Temari.

- Prologue -

Little Outcast. The Devil's Child. Shit-face. Button-eyes. Captain Combustable. These are only a few of the names people have given to me, some admittedly worse than others; but one rarely gets the honor of choosing how their seen by the judgemental public of a city as large as the Hidden Sand - a place said to be the Eden of the Desert. Although I was legally born as Noriyama Junichi, that name isn't often used, if ever, by the general population. Not since the day I was "orphaned". Yes, I know it's rather cut-and-paste, right? What sets me apart is that both of my parents are still alive... I'm just the only one who knows it. I'll spare you the details, but suffer it to say that my parents had the most unique way to escape their problem child that I've ever heard - they had sex on an extremely hot day and got so worked up that the house caught fire and crashed down around them. Yeah.

I'm the little Outcast; and with the Kazekage as my witness, I hope I never see those bastards again!

**Pilot Chapter: Escape From a False Eden**

- Sunagakure academy -

Sand crunched against the bottom of his boots as the young man, Junichi, drew to a stop in front of the audience chamber of the air-conditioned ninja school. His heart quickened it's pace as he stared at the closed door - the thin wooden barrier stood between him and what he knew was his destiny; he was the child of two elite ninja afterall. Junichi took a deep, steadying breath, pausing to ensure that he hadn't forgotten to put on his pants, before brushing aside all of his fears and thrusting open the portal to his future! His grin couldn't have been wider as he crossed through the doorway like a God. Until his shoulder crashed very unimpressively into the frame and nearly threw him off balance. If he had a reputation it would have been ruined... As it was, a kid called "Shit-face" by half of the village didn't have very far to fall.

A thin chorus of chuckles, snorts, and giggles filled the room, bringing Junichi's attention to the crowd of preteen academy graduates seated in the bleachers circumventing the audience chamber. With a sigh, he suffered the injustice of being picked apart by the jeering children as he corrected himself and made a proper bee-line for the woman standing in the center of the chamber with a sly grin of her own etched into her spectacled face. "Red Sands... Is he really wearing a tee-shirt with only one sleeve? ...and it's even in the same overused tan color everyone wears...!" one little girl lamented witheringly to her neighbor. "I know! I thought his cargo shorts were a nice touch, but black is way over-used, too; isn't it?" the girl's neighbor instigated as well, the two either ignorant of - or more likely, dispassionate of - Junichi's feelings. "He's scrawny as Hell and has green hair. Is he a carrot?" an overweight brat grunted, much to the chamber's racousious entertainment.

Thankfully, he was able to block out the children until finally approaching the instructor, offering the woman only a sheepish shrug and wry smile - telling of his adamant resilience to their comments. They had hurt his feelings, true; yet all he had to do was change his clothes to set things right. They'd be ugly forever. However, before he could mutter a word, the amused teacher gently touched him on his sleeveless arm - sending a shiver through his body on contact - and spoke in a whisper. "You're a little too early, sensei; you're not supposed to pick up a team until after lunch." Shizuhara-sensei urged humorously, her eyes glinting with laughter.

Junichi knew what it was all about, too. Graduates of the academy were always between the ages of nine to twelve - while he was the ripe age of fifteen. See, it was common in the Hidden Sand for a ninja in their mid-teens to be capable of attaining the rank of jounin; but no one would ever risk being caught as a teenaged _STUDENT_. With a heavy sigh, Junichi leaned just a little closer to the teacher and whispered back, "My name is Noriyama... I trained myself using my parent's ninjutsu scrolls."

"Noriyama?" Shizuhara-sensei returned in a hush, her brown eyes widening behind her wire-frame eyeglasses in realization of Junichi's true identity. "Wait; didn't all of '_their_' scrolls burn up while they were..."

"...library books about my parent's accomplishments...? Documentary films...?" Junichi corrected himself weakly, leaning closer to the woman with a stupid grin on his face.

"...and the Kazekage authorized placing you in one of our teams?"

"..." Junichi chuckled softly as he glanced away from the woman, unable to look her in the eyes. "Well, not personally... but Temari-san thinks I'll make an excellent Sandstorm-Trooper."

"...those are shock troops we use to distract enemies when we need to flank them with our real ninjas..." Shizuhara explained through the growing blue tint covering her face, "They die pretty fast, you know..."

"...you have to start somewhere..." Junichi tried valiently, fully aware that the room had grown deathly quiet in the graduate's attempts to overhear their hushed conversation; the attention caused his skin to tingle. He'd just have to put up with it if he was going to slip in and join the ranks of shinobi, though.

"Get out of my academy, Shit-face."

- Sunagakure Shopping District -

Junichi lay motionless in the shadow of a building with his hands clasped over his stomach and his eyes drinking in the passersby as they went about their daily grind. Now, he wasn't really fuming over having been physically thrown out of the school by the teacher and all of the preteen nutcases, but having lost his chance to become a genin certainly ruined all of his plans for the day. "Ah, who am I kidding; I'm pissed!" Junichi scowled as he kicked at a scorpion that was minding its own business, of which brandished its claws and stinger threateningly. "Shut up. I don't need you getting on my case too, little punk."

"You'd better be careful, Captain Combustable; he might kick your ass if you can't even become a genin at your age." a taunting familiar voice teased, signaling Junichi to look up and spot a young blonde kunoichi casually walking along a sandstone bridge, one that connected two buildings on either side of the bustling desert street. Just his luck that she happened to wander by at this exact moment. Then again, knowing the girl she'd probably been waiting for the perfect moment to pop out and make a dig at him. Junichi sighed as the young girl flipped out over the bridge and leapt down onto the ground near him, grinning as she crushed the scorpion with her landing.

"Yeah right, I'm probably already on a jounin level... they just never give me the chance to prove it. You should talk to someone about that, Temari-san." Junichi returned in a snarky tone, moving only to brush off sand that had been kicked onto his leg when the girl plummeted from the heavens. Would that make her an angel? he wondered. "Yeah right; who's ever heard of a thirteen-year-old angel?" he scoffed.

"What are you talking about all of a sudden?" Temari chuckled, unable to stop herself from crossing her arms, cocking her hips and allowing a smug little smirk to cross her lips. His only response was a shrug, dismissing his comment with the wave of his hand. "Anyway... I'm bored as Hell, so why don't you come on out of the shadows and talk to me. Or we can get all hot and sweaty..."

"Are you flirting with me?" Junichi accused in surprise as he shook his head, rubbing his eyes as an act to prove that he wasn't dreaming. Damn, he knew that he was a good-looking guy, but to be so up-front about it...!

Temari's usually pale face went even whiter mere seconds before an angry redness spread over her cheeks. "Definitely **not**!" she shouted indignantly as she grabbed him up by the tee-shirt and thrust him against the building he'd been leaning against. "I meant that we could do some training or practice with my father's scrolls!" she clarified rather harshly.

Junichi was more than a little grateful that she hadn't used her iron-fan to correct him. This time, anyway. Chuckling weakly, the teenager gently took his genin companion by the wrists, and then firmly yanked her arms away from his shirt. "I was kidding. If you want to know the truth; the only thing I want to do right now is go home and take a nap. I woke up at the butt-crack of dawn for absolutely nothing. I don't mean to sound like a jerk or some whiney prick, but I didn't get anything accomplished by going to the academy for a team so now I'm in a bad mood."

"Hah." Temari sneered as she pried her limbs free of his grip, using her own sweat to grease the way, "It's too bad, because that's exactly what you sound like, you nerd! Why don't you just move to Konoha or something? Coward. Sleeze. _Baka_!" the blonde genin shouted scathingly, completely disregarding the curious stares from the too-nosey crowd doing their best to pretend that they weren't watching the scuffle. A fight between the Kazekage's daughter and "The Outcast" wasn't the most anticipated fight in the village, but it was free entertainment none-the-less.

"Tch... bitch." The wind stopped blowing as Temari stared incomprehensively into his face; she was far, far too stunned to even begin processing what he had just said to her. The crowd grew silent; some of the wiser few increased their pace and left as quickly as they could. "What I meant was..." Junichi stammered in an attempt to rectify the situation, however, even he knew that there was no turning back now. Without muttering another word, the teenaged wannabe ninja hastily threw three smoke bombs to the ground to mask his escape before tearing into the rooftops and sprinting for his life.

Finally recovering from her eternity of stupification, Temari shouted loudly enough to strain her throat as she bellowed into the sky, "I swear that I'm going to send Gaara after you for that!" Needless to say, the crowd surrounding the abandoned girl dispersed very quickly. Some even ran.

Junichi didn't stop running until his apartment came into view, and even then not until he dove in through an open window and slammed the wooden shutter. Gasping for breath, the shaken teen glanced down at his hands and chuckled weakly, muttering "That was a stupid thing to do." as he shook his head in disbelief. After several long moments to calm his jackhammer heart and panting breath, the outcast - living in a single's apartment off of the inheritance from his parents - decided that the first thing he was going to do was lie low for a couple hours. After that... "Iwagakure might be a good idea; I hear all you have to do is draw blood from one of the instructors and you're automatically eligible to take the genin exam." First things first, though: he needed water and he needed it now.

He sighed as he finished off the entire glass of water in a single gulp. Helplessly staring into the empty glass in deep thought, Junichi shook his head in disappointment at how his life had turned out up to this point. "I seem to be some kind of fuck-up, though; so maybe Konohagakure might be a good fit afterall. They accept anyone, I hear." he murmured in reflection of his earlier concept of the Hidden Rock. Thus, with that decision made, the teenaged wannabe set about packing for his trip; he wouldn't be coming back to this little dust ball, so he knew that he'd have to pack intelligently.

- Two hours later -

Junichi took a deep, steadying breath as he shifted his heavy pack to redistribute the weight on his shoulders; this was the moment that would define the rest of his life and he knew it. With his charcoal eyes as hard as steel, the young man emboldened his step and threw his front door wide, allowing himself to be blasted by the hot desert sun. As a civilian with no parents there was really nothing that could stop him from leaving, and no one that would give chase to drag him back. Temari certainly wouldn't. "Gaku!" Junichi grunted as he crashed face-first into the rock-solid chest of a uniformed shinobi.

"Are you 'Shit-face'?" the middle-aged juggarnaught demanded in a baritone voice. The man radiated the kind of quiet power that commanded authority; likely one of the reasons why he'd been promotted to jounin so early in his life.

Grumbling, Junichi backed away a couple steps and gazed way up into the shinobi's face. Oddly enough the man had half of his face hidden behind a turban flap, with a red marcking tattooed into his other cheek. He knew this man pretty well, due mostly to his recent interactions with the Kazekage's only daughter. Clearing his throat, Junichi addressed the man the way only a teenaged boy would, "Among other names, yeah. What the Hell do you want now, Baki-sensei?"

"There's been a complaint from one of our academy instructors that you've been disrupting her class and making a mockery of the Kazekage." Baki replied moments before withdrawing a sharp kunai from a pouch at his belt, causing Junichi's blood to run cold ans his eyes grow wide. "Your punishment is..." in one swift motion the straps of his bag were split and the entire pack fell to the gound with a solid crash, throwing the teen off balance and forcing him to catch his footing quickly. "Community Service for the rest of the day. It would probably be in your best interest to do as I say, or this knife will become plunged into your heart instead."

"What, you guys don't exile anyone anymore?" Junichi grumbled coldly, his eyes still fixed worriedly on the jounin's knife. "I could be out of the country before the sun goes down and you wouldn't have to do a damn thing."

"Not this time, 'Shit-face'. Now, come." Baki commanded as he grabbed Junichi roughly by the collar of his tee-shirt, his grip so strong that the boy had no chance of breaking free. This was the man trusted with teaching the children of the kazekage, afterall. Junichi groaned, but realized that he was now up shit creek with no paddle; again his plans for the day were trashed.

It was only twenty more minutes before Baki shoved him towards what looked eerily reminicent of a pickaxe chain-gang, tasked with breaking sandstone from the surrounding mesas into large chunks for use in building. "Take the boulder at the top of that pile and break it down into gravel. Unless you fuck around, you should be done before nightfall. Otherwise you can leave as soon as you're finished." Baki instructed dutifully.

"Could I have some water first, at least?" Junichi demanded, though only to be a rebellious ass. Without grunting a word, his jounin supervisor grabbed a plastic canteen from a folding table provided for the prisoners and tossed it dispassionately to Junichi. After taking a large gulp, the teen stuffed the canteen into one of the large pockets in his over-done black cargo shorts and sighted up to the top of the pile of rocks. With no choice in the matter, he scaled the mountain of rocks without event and groaned as he heavted the heavy boulder. There was no way he was going to stagger down the pile with the chunk, so he simply tossed it to the ground and jumped down after it.

Another jounin was waiting for him with a pick in his hand; he was one of the men assigned to keep an eye on the prisoners. Junichi grabbed the tool from the man before turning to the stone and lifting his axe into the air. "Ouch! This is complete bullshit..." the teen grumbled as he flexed his right hand - his pick had struck a solid part of the stone and sent painful vibrations along the handle and into his arms.

"Ha ha, you're not much for being the Devil's Child, are you?" one of the filthy former-muggers laughed coarsly, pausing in breaking down his own rock to jeer at the newcomer. "Why don't you just melt the damn thing and be done with it... but I guess there aren't any women 'round here to get busy with, are there? Ha!"

"Fuck you." Junichi sneered as he brought the pick down again, growling when it stung his hands once more.

A new wave of laughter filled the canyon, forcing Junichi to growl and return his attention to the prisoner he was trading barbs with, who was now pointing his pick at the teenager and grinning wide enough to display his rotted teeth. "Oho; I haven't been in jail long enough for that, princess. From what I hear you're on a pretty good path leading you down this road, so maybe I'll see you later and take you up on the offer!" The catcalls were sickening, but the only thing Junichi could do about it was break his boulder down into gravel quickly enough to get away from the man before he ended up killing him - proving the moron correct in the process.

He swore again when his pick came down, but rather than bouncing off and hurting him again, the tip became lodged in the rock. "Is this some kind of sick joke to you, or something?" he growled as he pulled hard on the handle of his tool, though it refused to pry free. It had already been an hour at this point since he started and his muscles were already tiring from the strain of working so long in the scorching sun; he didn't have the strength to rip it free.

"...and to think that a weak little shit like you thought that you could become a shinobi in MY Hidden Sand village." Baki sneered coldly as he shoved Junichi out of the way and ripped the pick from the boulder with only his right hand; he tossed the impliment heartlessly into the sand before returning to the shade of the supervisor's tent. "Drink some fucking water and get back to work."

Junichi swore under his breath as he bent over to collect the mining pick, but before he could stand he noticed something half-buried in the sand that hadn't been there before. Ignoring Baki's command, he collected the new object as well before standing upright and inspecting it in his hand. A large chip had come free when Baki ripped the axe out of the rock; when all he had done this entire time was riddle the entire boulder with cracks and flakes. "Wait a minute..." he whispered as he dropped the pick and approached the rock, crouching over it and gently dragging his fingers over the dusty surface and muttering to himself.

"Holy shit - if he starts banging that rock I'm getting out of here!" one of the sweating prisoners proclaimed with a sickened look on his face, evoking a round of laughter from the others in the chain-gang. He was shot down by one of the shinobi guards however, informing him that his only two choices were to sit and watch him have sex with a rock or get back to work. As the prisoner did as commanded, the guard sighed and turned towards Baki, "What I want to know is why you're just letting him get away with this shit. I'd expect a mighty jounin like yourself to be on top of things like this."

"Shut up for a second." Baki commanded, not even worried that the guard was another jounin. "I may have judged him too harshly before." he realized as Junichi compared the chip to different parts of the stone. "That little piece of trash is checking for weaknesses; he's going to switch from random powerful swings to more precise strikes. It's what a ninja would do."

True to the jounin's suspicions, after downing another gulp of precious water, Junichi spun the axe more confidently in his hand as he took aim at his target. "Duriya!" he cried in effort as he brought the sharp tip down on the softer, grittier part of the rock. Sparks flew and the sound of metal striking a hard surface rang out, but a larger crack than normal cut into the rock; one more strike and an large chunk fell free and landed in the sand - it too had a crack already forming through it. "Ha! None shall stand against the might of Captain Combustable!" Junichi shouted as he brought his weapon down on the crack, shattering the chunk into smaller shards. "The Outcast of the Hidden Sand!" he cried, breaking a shard into smaller pebbles. "I'm the Devil's Child who inherits the Flame of Death! Those who meet my blackened eyes all shall die!" he laughed with a burning fire raging in his chest, the gleaming pick singing as he drew it back for the final blow, purposfully coating the tool with his chakra.

Sand crunched underfoot as Baki strode out from under the protection of the tent, carefuly tilting his head to avoid a flying peice of debris launched by the force of Junichi's strike. "You forgot Shit-face," he started, but in a flicker of blurred movement, Baki's arm shot out and caught the wooden shaft of the pick, stopping the sharp tip from digging into his chest. "You had better fucking tell me that you were so excited that you acted out of reflex, otherwise I'll tear you to shreds using only my bare hands."

Junichi stared in wide-eyed horror, gulping helplessly while transfixed in place by the refined fury of the practiced killer glaring at him from behind half of a veil. "It must have been the heat..." he supplied weakly, barely noticing that his knuckles had gone white from refusing to relent in his grip on the axe. "If I'm going to die, at least give me a fighting chance, okay?" he begged in a resigned tone.

"It took you four hours to do a twenty-minute job. Refil your fucking water and follow me, Shit-face." Baki sneered coldly as he yanked the pick from Junichi's hand and tossed it to the jounin he'd been conversing with. Junichi was getting more fed up with the lack of information than the title he'd been given - it was most common among the middle-aged adults anyway. So, after emiting a scoff, the teenager did as ordered, hardly bothering to walk very fast after tucking the canteen into his pocket again.

- Sunagakure -

Temari waved down one of the guards standing between her and the Kazekage's audience chamber, ducking around the young man to enter her father's office. Ever the impertinant young woman, Temari crossed her arms and frowned at the shadow of her father from behind his veil rather than falling into a respectful kneel. "Hey, old man? You remember what I told you earlier?"

"What do you want, Temari?" the Wind-Shadow grumbled in a frustrated growl. "Do you want to take back your request to send your brother after that boy? The one you call Corporal Explosion."

"It's Captain Combustable, daddy." his daughter corrected with a frown. "...he's a little annoying, but no one else treats me like a person except him. Don't think that I really care that much, but I don't really want him to die yet." Temari claimed, cocking her hips and shrugging to show her indifference.

"I didn't send your brother out to kill anyone, Temari. That boy is performing community service with your sensei for disturbing our latest graduating class of genin; you can see him tomorrow after your emotional training class."

"Ugh! I hate those lessons!" Temari complained, irritably glaring at her father through his screen.

"That's exactly why you're taking them, princess." one of the Kazekage's guards teased, moving forward on command to escort the girl from the room. When she was gone, the jounin turned back to the seated Kazekage and shook his head contemptuously. "I don't mean to tell you how to raise your own children, but I don't think that she should be consorting with that boy - he's a terrible influence and a rotten excuse for a ninja."

"I agree, Iguchi. I want you to figure out a way to keep those two apart without making it seem too obvious. You may engineer his death if it comes to it - he does not concern me." the Yondaime commanded. Turning to one of his assistants, he instructed to have Shizuhara-sensei summoned, claiming, "I expect her to have the genin exams from the jounin prepared for my authorization by now."

- Streets of Suna -

Junichi was already in a pretty sour mood, all things considered; unfortunately there wasn't anything he could do about his recent brush with injustice. Even had Baki been a member of the Sunagakure police force, they still answer to the Kazekage: a man who sat as dictator above the masses. He walked in an enraged silence, glowering at Baki's back as the two wove their way back to Junichi's house - he already recognized the path. What was unusual, however, was that Baki suddenly took a right turn through an ally rather than leading him to the intersection ahead. "Good, a shortcut will get me home sooner." Baki did not answer him, though. As they walked he couldn't help but notice that the alleyway had gotten wider suddenly - the buildings along the next street were spaced further apart than the last.

He was about to mention a better shortcut to his house when without warning, Baki leapt up into the rooftops and crouched on a ledge. A trap sprung around the teen while he was distracted with following his escort's movement - two barriers burst from the ground, extending from wall-to-wall and forming an open top box around Junichi. Before he could say a single word, the shinobi tossed something into the center of the trap, just out of Junichi's reach, and watched intently.

Junichi's blood ran cold when he recognized the object as an explosive device with no fuse - and that it wasn't a dummy. Terrified, all he could do was take a step away from the bomb and gulp; but in doing so he was able to feel the extra weight on his leg and hear the slosh of water in the canteen he'd put in his pocket. "Shit!" he screamed.

With a wave of Baki's hand the wooden walls fell back into the sand and were immediately recovered by four uniformed shinobi, who gathered the barriers and ran off. Dust kicked into the air when the sensei landed across from his target, slowly returning to an upright posture with his arms crossed over his chest and a calculating look in his one visible eye. Still huddling in the dirt with a frightened look on his face, Junichi had barely managed to save his own life by shoving the grenade into the sand and holding the plastic canteen over it. What this did was cause the water inside to direct the detonation down into the ground and away from his body; though hopelessly burning his hands, Junichi had at least survived the blast.

"I'm going to take you striaght to the hispital to have your hands looked at, but before I do that I need to ask you one question..." Baki prompted as he unfolded his arms and knelt down to toss Junichia's arm around his neck to support the young man, "How much do you wish to impress all of the students from the academy?"

"I don't give a shit about any of them... I only care about me." Junichi grumbled, gritting his teeth as he put forth the necessary effort to get to his feet. The explosion had affected more than just his hands; his ears were ringing and his heart had already skipped every other beat from the shock of nearly dying. Plus, he already felt himself losing consciousness from the stress.

"Good answer." Baki grunted under his breath. The next moment he flexed his knees and launched into motion, blurring as he dragged his burden along with him on his way to the Sunagakure hospital. It was only a couple more minutes before Baki dropped the unconscious body off in the hospital - under the moniker of "Sunagakure's Outcast" - and left to have a word with the Kazekage.

- Sunagakure hospital -

Junichi didn't wake for several hours; in fact he might have been out longer except for the fact that something rubbing against his face had woken him from his light recovery nap. Still unable to find the willpower to pry his eyes open, he found that whatever was on his face was incredibly soft, but also warm and smelled wonderfully clean. Again it pressed against his cheek and eye, sending a wave of relaxation and comfort through his entire body for reasons unexplained; but there was that incescent beeping drone interrupting him from both his nap and the soft sensation. However, by now he was awake enough to open his eyes; and when he did his heart nearly stopped - an effect proven by a loud beep from a nearby monitor. His surpirse was well-founded, however; he found that a nurse was in the process of rubbing her breasts over his face.

"Umm... you know..." he mumbled dumbly, mentally kicking himself for reacting like such a child. The woman wasn't even very busty or all that cute in the first place, so why should he freak out?

"Kya!" the young nurse gasped as she jerked away from his bed, flushing brightly as she struggled to close her top and hide her face. "Close your eyes! Don't look at me!" the woman begged as she worked the buttons of her uniform, cursing her unfortunate existance as she stammered incoherantly about having instructions to press the call button beside his bed should he show signs of waking up, and how brushing against him had been cooincidental. That he shouldn't even bother remembering that it had happened.

When the woman was finished with her scattered gibbering, Junichi groaned and reached out, slamming the call button with the side of his fist and shaking his head in irritation. "Alright, whatever. It was an accident that didn't actually happen. Where the hell is that jounin that left me here?"

"Actually, I don't know. I'm sorry." the nurse apologized as she demurely shook her head. Pausing, she gently took a seat in a folding chair provided for visitors and worriedly wrung her hands. Catching her eyes, Junichi couldn't help but feel that the poor woman was desperate beyond belief; the wretched, yet hungry look in her eyes almost compelled him to come close enough to be devoured. Before he could utter a word, the woman forced a light smile as she reached out and took him by the hand, "My name is Fuuko. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Yeah, Noriya-" he began in introduction, but managed to catch himself in time to stop himself from inviting the hellfire that would follow should he answer with his real name. "Actually, the old people in the village call me 'Button-eyes' because they're dark and shine in the sun." Junichi replied, pausing to let the woman see his charcoal irises, though the sun had already gone down and would not reflect off of them until morning. He was about to ask where the hell his clothing had gone when he noticed something strange as Fuuko squeezed his hand. "Hey, didn't I burn my hands back there? Why are they perfectly fine now?"

"Oh!" Fuuko explaimed in excitement, suddenly smiling brightly as she adjusted her grip of his hand so that he could see his unblemished palm, "The medical ninjas came in here and fixed it super fast! It was amazing what they can do that our normal staff can't even dream about! Like magic..."

It was then that the door came open, revealing Baki as he strode into the room from the hallway; however, he was no longer dressed in his uniform. Instead, the jounin wore slate-colored slacks and a plain white tee-shirt under a brown traveling cloak; however, his right eye was still covered by the flap of his normal headgear. After sending the nurse out of the room - who begged for Junichi to call her later - Baki walked up to the young man and gruffly took him by the collar, ignoring his protests as he dragged the boy out of the bed and to his feet. "I have information for you, but first you must answer a question for me."

"What is it now?" Junichi scowled coldly, annoyed that the only thing he could do was glare into Baki's left eye and dream of punching him - for doing so in real life would be suicide. "I don't really want to do any more of these stupid tests of potential."

"Just listen, Shit-face." Baki grunted as he tossed Junichi to the side, ignoring him when he collided with the wall and swore colorfully. "Your punishment for interrupting Shizuhara-sensei's graduation class has been carried out, so you're off the hook for that. As for the tests of potential: those weren't my idea, but that doesn't change what I noticed when you were subjected to them. Now, listen to me very closely, boy; if you still want to be a shinobi then you'd better get your ass home so that you can make your meeting with the Kazekage in the morning." The next thing he did was to retrive a pile of clothing from within his traveling cloak and toss them onto the now vacant bed - they were the same ones Junichi had been wearing when he'd been admitted.

- The next day -

Junichi groaned as he dropped his new dufflebag on the floor and tossed himself heavily onto the western-style bed provided by the inn of the small border village. Despite what Baki had said the day before, he didn't feel that he had much of a chance of becoming a ninja of the sand; and even if he did, he didn't want to make a career out of survive through tests that could cost him his life. Therefore he'd quickly bribed a chuunin to escort him out of the country, who in turn smooth-talked the gate guards to turn a blind eye to their leaving without permission. So now the two men were resting in a small town just on this side of the Land of Wind.

"Alright. I'll give it twenty minutes for rest, but then I'll have to run all the way back to Sunagakure if I want to get there before I'm missed. I appreciate the donation you made to my family; my infant son thanks you the most; but it won't mean too much if I'm caught and put to death for abandonment."

"No kidding." Junichi agreed breathlessly, laying perfectly still on the bed, groaning as he felt the pulsing in his head and legs from the jog through the desert in the middle of the night. "All that matters is you got me through the desert without getting lost. I can make it the rest of the way from here."

"Well, good luck on your new life, and good night to you. I'm going to wait outside so that I can take off as soon as I'm ready." the Sand chuunin announced as he waved in farewell. Junichi merely grunted and let his arm flop as a goodbye. He was fast asleep before the shinobi had even crossed the room. The best thing about his escape from the ninja world was that as a civilian he didn't have to worry about being followed by assassins - or would the best part be his not having to have sex until he caught fire? Either way, he remained knocked out until just before lunch, when his stomach woke him with its protests.

"It's a good thing that I packed sandwiches for the trip..." Junichi murmured as he scratched his ass before climbing out of bed, blinking blearily in the bright sunlight streaming through the slats of the inn room window. After a quick rifling through his supplies and enjoying a patiently eaten jackel-meat and cabbage sandwich, Junichi shouldered his dufflebag and pulled on his sandals. His life would finally be his own the second he crossed the border into the Land of the River, though even he had no idea where he'd go or end up doing.


	2. Escape from the Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other affiliated characters, locations or ideas. I do own all original content including characters, locations, jutsu and plot lines. Likeness to any real people or places is unintentional and coincidental.

**Chapter 02: Rescued from the Darkness**

Noriyama Junichi groaned groggily, but couldn't find the will to open his eyes - a situation that reminded him eerily of the time he was molested in the Sunagakure hospital a day or two ago. This time there wasn't anything soft rubbing against his face; though his back was oddly cold, and his stomach comfortably warm. The next thing he noticed was that his back was stiff and his neck sore - he guessed from falling asleep while sitting up. It was funny though, because now that his senses were coming back online, Junichi could swear that he smelled... strawberries?

He allowed a huge yawn before prying his eyes open so that he could get an handle on his location. What he found was that he was in a garden of some kind leaning against a rock; and there was someone else with him. "What the-?" Junichi hesitated upon noticing that the other person was sleeping against his stomach. "Suu... suu..." the slumbering person breathed evenly in her sleep - he guessed that it was a girl, judging by the emerald hair spilling down her back and the alluring way her body curved gently against his legs. "Cold..." she murmured in her sleep, shivering lightly against him.

"Hey, wake up." Junichi pressed uncertainly, cautiously tapping on the girl's bare shoulder in an effort to rouse her without alarming her. "You... I'm not a human bed, you know!"

Finally the girl shifted groggily, grumbling in her sleep as she rubbed her face into his stomach as if it was her pillow. Then, arching her back she turned her attention to her living mattress, her amber eyes finding his button-like eyes quickly as she smiled at him. "You're awake!" she realized in dulled excitement as she pulled away from him, only to twist around so as to lay against him on her back.

"What exactly is going on?" Junichi prodded as he took the teenaged girl by the shoulders and attempted to push her off of him so that he could stand up; his ninja training taught him never to trust a suspicious stranger. Especially one wearing the headband of the Amegakure shinobi. However, he found that the kunoichi was not only lithe but quick as well when she twisted back to face him; she sat in his lap with her knees apart and her arms wrapped around his neck as if she was planning to kiss him. Junichi was thankful to the Red Sand that she appeared to be around his age, rather than being a little girl or haggered old woman.

"You don't have any reason to be afraid, Mr. Sand ninja! I helped you out!" she exclaimed giddily, bouncing in a painfully wonderful way against his hips. "You were lost for a while, but I saved you. That means I own you and you must obey whatever I ask!"

"What in the Red Sands does that mean?" he scoffed suddenly, scowling in confusion at the clingly girl when he finally had enough blood in his head to think rationally. He stood up in an attempt to dislodge her, but only served to put her in more of a provocative position, causing her to smirk seductively and stare deeply into his eyes. "Do you mind?" he grunted, his temper slowly rising with every question that went unanswered. He cried out in surprise when the young teenaged girl swung around him and ended up seated on his shoulders, each of her knees on either side of his face. "Hold on-! Why did you call me a Sand ninja? I'm not-"

"See?" the unusual woman prompted as she leaned out so that her stomach pressed against the back of his head and her breasts ended up on his forehead, "I took this from you a little bit ago." Junichi fought to keep his balance while trying to see whatever she was trying to show him at the same time; the object turned out to be a strip of blue cloth with something metal attached to it. It was a Sunagakure shinobi headband!

"I don't remember becoming a ninja - especially not in a village that I turned by back on!" he complained in a growl, still fighting to stay on his feet even as the eccentric kunoichi giggled and dropped the headband into his reaching hand. "Would you please-! he barked as he ducked forward to dump the girl off of his shoulders. His wasted effort only allowed the girl to land on her feet and spin away from him, coming to a stop with her hands clasped behind her back and her chest thrust forward as she smirked devilishly into his eyes.

"How about this instead, _desho_?" she whispered ardorously as she reached up behind her neck to untie something. Junichi's eyes nearly bugged out of his head when the front of her blouse fell from her shoulders, though she caught the fabric and held it to her chest to prevent herself from flashing him. Apparently the young woman was more of a tease than an exhibitionist.

"Woah-! I barely know you!" he gagged with a mouth as dry as the desert and his heart beating like a hammer in his chest; was he blushing? He didn't know.

The woman seemed to understand why he'd reacted the way he had, judging by her soft chuckle and the mischiveous sparkle in her eye. She then winked before twisting on her heel fast enough for her hair to fling out, finishing with her bare back towards Junichi. "No; this is so you can give me a shoulder massage." Pausing for one abstract moment to focus on the originality of her having three high ponytails, Junichi managed to regain enough of his composure to remark that he had no idea how to give anyone a massage. This of course hardly balked the as of yet unnamed ninja girl, for she answered quickly, "Then you'll just do the best that you can, _desho ne_?."

Suddenly he seemed to relax, and he loosely approached the girl from behind. He didn't react when she squirmed under his grip with a small gasp from his cold hands, instead he surprised her by jerking back and locking his forearm around her throat, remembering to apply pressure on the sides of her neck rather than the front. "Here's a change of plans, alright? I'll go ahead and give you what you want, but I want you to answer all of my questions while I do it. Deal?" Struggling to pry herself free while keeping one hand on her shirt to keep it in place, the girl must have been thinking quickly lest she lose concious, because she nodded and gave what he assumed was an affirmative grunt. He loosened his grip a little bit, but didn't free her completely. "First tell me who you are."

"My name is Suzumiya Koyoko; I'm a jounin from the Hidden Rain. You're here in the Land of Puddles because I brought you here." she finally relented, seeming to have given up in her struggles to break his rear-naked choke technique.

"If you're a jounin, why did you let me grab you like this? Anyone with-" he demanded suspiciously, sorely tempted to reapply pressure with his arm.

"You wouldn't like me very much if I hurt you, _desho ne_?" Koyoko admitted shortly. "Now, you promised..."

Junichi sighed heavily as if in defeat, temporarily unsettled by the shakey breath Koyoko let out when he inadverdently blew against the back of her neck - which seemed to have taken her by as much surprise as he. Hiding his brief embarassment, he moved his hands to her shoulders and began what he hoped was a basic massage. "Look, I'm sorry about freaking out like that. I don't seem to remember anything after leaving Sunagakure yesterday; what's been going on?"

Koyoko arched her back and let out a pleasant moan of comfort before glancing over her right shoulder at him and smiling. "I can't tell you every detail because I wasn't with you every step of the way, but I can help you out with what I do know. I'm not going to lie about anything either - I don't want you to stop doing what your doing," she explained softly, turning her attention back to the front after a moment. "The rumors say that you were grabbed and dragged back to Sunagakure before you could cross the border into Rivers. I don't know what they did to you after that, but you suddenly started attacking any ninja in the Land of Wind that wasn't a Sand ninja."

"I killed them? How is it possible that I was suddenly able to fight enemy ninja?" Junichi questioned, though it was directed at no one in particular. "Then again, I have no idea how long I've been out of it. What day is it?" He did a quick calculation when she supplied the date, starting from the last day he remembered. "Then it's only been four months...? Am I really so awesome without realizing it?"

"It's not a joke, Noriyama." Koyoko scoffed, stiffening under his grip despite his feeble attempts at relaxing her shoulders. "You were like some kind of puppet with no strings, no emotions, and no morals. You also weren't alone - there was a jounin following you around so they could strike when the target was softened up enough and distracted by fighting you. ...and you've been defeated before, it's just that no one was able to kill you before that jounin could show up and rescue you."

"Who was the jounin? It wasn't that asshole Baki of the Sand, was it?" Junichi growled, though he quickly apologozed to Koyoko for scratching her.

"I don't know who it was because he always wore a mask. It might have even been a woman. All that matters is that I was your next target - young jounin like me are usually targeted by pretty much every other village. What sucks is that the Hidden Rain hasn't had a lot of luck fighting back against the villages of the larger, more powerful countries around us." Koyoko explained, trailing off to arch her back and close her eyes. "That's really starting to feel good..."

"Damn. So you defeated that jounin, kicked my ass and dragged me across the border? Why?" he complained, somewhat disappointed that he wasn't as amazing as he thought he was. No one enjoyed such harsh blows to their confidence.

Koyoko paused for a long moment, then pulled away from him to fix her blouse; though the feeling in the air told Junichi that it wasn't because of his massage. She then turned to stare at him again, this time with a more serious look in her eyes. "It's true that I kicked your ass and I _did_ drag you across the border, but I didn't fight that jounin. I would have lost for sure. I've already told you that we're losing too much power to stand up to the major countries, _desho ne_?"

"Ok, but _why_ did you take me here and not just kill me? I would have..."

"Actually," Koyoko interrupted, "when I figured out that you were under the effects of a powerful genjutsu, I took it upon myself to remove it. It took me three whole days to break the jutsu, _desho ne_!" The green-haired girl took a moment to relax lest she become overexcited, which would be a total waste after getting a massage. Suddenly she sighed heavily before reaching out and patting him on the shoulder, her face becoming a mask of regret and disappointment. "Anyway, I should probably take you back to Sunagakure now, _desho ne_? That really was yours, you know."

Junichi glanced down at the headband in his hand, staring down at the etched hourglass as he ran a thumb over the metal plate. Slowly a grin began to spread over his face, causing Koyoko to smile in return, both of her eyes seeming to sparkle in the morning light as he reached out towards her. "I was wondering where I could get one like this, instead." he hinted slyly as he gently ran his fingers over the four virticle lines on the plate over her forehead.

"I might have an idea, but the question is whether you'd be willing to commit yourself. To the village, I mean!" Koyoko teased with a flirtatious flick of her hair as she turned on her heel to put her back to him. "_Desho ne_..." A shiver ran through Junichi's body, compelling him to follow behind the jounin as if he was a zombie; though the genjutsu had already been removed.

- Sunagakure -

Temari glanced up from the start of her first emotional lesson since beginning on her training in the element of wind; something had just caused a twitch in her stomach. Something highly disturbing had just happened, but she couldn't tell what it was. Catching her instructor's eye, she mentioned that she had to use the bathroom and excused herself without waiting for a response. Pausing just before she even got the the ladies room, Temari glanced over her shoulder to make sure that she wasn't being followed before darting to one of the windows in the hallway; she was outside and up on the building's roof in seconds flat.

"I knew something was going on!" she growled under her breath as her aquamarine eyes scanned the city, catching the shapes of several traveling messangers weaving through the desert city as if in a hurry. "This could be important; I should go find out what's going on!" she decided, the twinge in her stomach alerting her that whatever was going on would involve her in some way. She didn't look back before taking off to intercept one of the carriers; thankfully she had a massive lead ahead of the last man - it would give her enough time to get between him and her father.

Guessing his route and moving to intercept the chuunin wasn't much of a challenge for a genin with as many impressive skills as she; however, stopping him to convince him to hand her the message would probably be the toughest part of her plan. Temari didn't have to wait too much longer for the ninja to catch up to her. Reacting quickly, she dashed forward and thrust out with her iron fan - it caught him in the collar and threw the hurried man off of his feet. "Gah! Temari-san!" he gasped in astonshment, staring in wild confusion at having been assaulted by the daughter of the Kazekage.

"Just skip all of the formalities, whoever you are. I'm going to deliver the message you have for my father; no questions, no options. Give it over." she demanded firmly, holding her fan so that it could unfold enough to display the first dot painted on its surface.

"Just take it-!" the chuunin, a bearded middle-aged man with a tattoo on his wrist, coughed roughly as he tossed the a sealed scroll at the girl's feet. After hacking and spitting out a bit of blood, he climbed back to his feet, rubbing his chest the entire time he did. "As long as you don't send your brother out to kill me..." he wheezed in defeat, "There isn't anything that the Kazekage can do to me that Gaara can't do worse."

Ignoring the man as he staggered off out of sight, Temari regarded the massege, noting that it felt heavier in her hands than it truely should have. Of course, if it did pertain to her as much as she thought it would, then all of her actions could be justified. Removing the seal would be as easy as repeating what she'd seen done when she was much younger, back when her father didn't think that she understood what was going on around her.

It worked! Gulping, Temari unfurled the scroll with eyes as wide as baseballs and her heart drumming rapidly in her chest; the first couple of passages would be distractions, she was sure, so she skipped ahead to the real message that had been enroute to her father. One familiar word caught the young woman's eye as she scanned for relevance. "Noriyama - that was Captain Combusable's real name!" she realized as a blast of tingles ran through her body. Reading more intently from where she assumed was the beginning of what should interest her, her blood ran cold at the mention that he'd been taken across the border, then began to boil furiously by the mention that he'd left towards Amegakure upon his own free will.

"He really _is_ a coward and a jerk! Oh, why did I even bother pretending that I could be friends with a slimeball like him! Ohhh!" she growled intensely, fuming from the ears as she clawed at the scroll. She fought against her tears of fury, refusing to let them escape and make her seem weak, until eventually she threw the message at a wall in her rage. The note unrolled further after bouncing off of the sandstone building, rebounding and striking the girl as if in retaliation, to which she screamed in a tantrum and kicked wildly in the sand in an attempt to stamp the thing out of existence.

"Red Sands, calm down, Temari-san!" someone barked from somewhere behind the girl, startling her into more of a passive state, though she continued to heave wrathfully. The man turned out to be her instructor for the emotional control lessons she'd been taking on her father's orders. "This is exactly why I was told to pay extremely close attention to you, little one." the instructor chuckled lightly, all aggression seeming to melt away when the young blonde turned towards him with the guiltiest face he'd ever seen. "Listen to me, Temari-san. The best thing for you right now is tea and a warm bath; so why don't you go home for now and try to relax while I take this scroll to your father, alright? All I want you to do after that is come back to my office whenever you fell that you're ready to put all of this behind you. Can you do that for me?"

Temari sighed heavily, but nodded her conscent. Finally she managed to find her voice, though it was more of a whisper than anything, "I don't want to forget that he exists; I just want to get my temper under control... Can you help me do that?"

"Yes, I can. Now, go ahead and calm down for me. I'll be waiting for you in my office when you're ready to begin again." Again, Temari nodded.

- Amegakure -

Thankfully, the Rain jounin Suzumiya Koyoko had let him stay in her house - so long as he could stay sane from her persistant teasing - until he was able to save up enough of the local currency to get his own place. Junichi found the city of the Hidden Rain to almost be part of a different universe when compared to Sunagakure; an industrial maze of copper, lead, and steel pipes, smoke stacks and steam valves versus an organic work of art made from rounded sandstone buildings and towering teeth of moss-covered rock serving as trees. He supposed that neither place was better than the other, with the sole exception of the people inhabiting them - more to the point, the lack of anyone knowing about his embarassing past! While it had been a little discerning to hear the light spashing of cooled steam turned to water rather than the crunching of sand underfoot, Junichi already been inside the Hidden Rain for almost three days waiting for an opportunity to speak with Hanzo; it was long enough to adapt to a new environment for a guy as awesome as he was.

However, when it became apparent that Hanzo would remain unavailable for too much of an extended period, Junichi was instead taken to speak with Salamander Hanzo's second-in-command. Junichi couldn't help but wonder what he'd be asked, or if he'd have to take some sort of test of his potential as he pulled on his last steel-toed boot; taking enough time to tuck the end of his olive-colored fatigue pants into the ankle before rising to grab his white, sleeveless trenchcoat. He was out through the door after a quick adjusting for maximum comfort.

Water splashed underfoot as Junichi came to a stop outside of the door his escort pointed out to him; this time he was absolutely sure that his destiny lie on the other side. He knocked with confidence, grinning at the powerful sound of his mighty knuckles on wood. "Oh, shi-!" he exclaimed when the floor came out from under him as a trapdoor clicked open, dumping him into a chamber under the building without warning. He landed hard in a puddle of water, but immediately jumped back to his feet and took a quick account of his surroundings. It was pitch black in every direction he looked - even the trapdoor over head had closed and locked, sealing him into total darkness with only the sound of dripping water to keep him company.

"Not cool! I'm getting a little sick of these spontanious potential tests!" he shouted into the nether, his blood nearly coming to a boil. As if responding to his outburst, a pair of lights illuminated in the distance far enough away that he could only make out the vague form of a person. The lights continued to flash on as the person drew closer, until he was close enough to identify but still clearly out of reach for an attack. Not only that, but he could hear a couple other people treading in the water at his rear flank, surrounding him in the darkness. "Now what?" Junichi grumbled sourly as he clenched his fists in anticipation, allowing unrest to overtake his body as he prepared to react should he need to.

"Noriyama Junichi, I presume?" the scarlet-haired man spoke softly, keeping both of his hands in his pockets. "My name is Nagato; I'm second-in-command over Amegakure and substitute for Hanzo-sama when he's unavailable. These are are teammates, Yahiko and Konan." One more set of lights flickered on to illuminate the two Rain shinobi behind him. "I see that you're already wearing an Amegakure headband."

"What? I wasn't supposed to put it on yet?" Junichi frowned as he dropped out of his brawler's stance and reached for the headband he's tied around his neck. He was about to remove it when the woman, Konan, interrupted him.

"It's not important right now." she claimed in a business-like tone, shifting to catch her wrist in front of her thighs.

Yahiko, a full grown man with surprisingly energetic eyes, chuckled, "We do have a test of your abilities, but it's not unlike what any genin would perform to earn their acceptance as shinobi. You should have seen what _we_ had to do to get Jiraiya-sensei to train us!"

"Ok, I guess." Junichi relented with a shrug, "What do I have to do?" Water splashing alerted him that Konan was walking up to him, but not in a threatening way; instead she pulled back on her sleeve to reveal a bit of her skin that had peeled back as if it was paper, instructing him to take it for himself. Though confused, he knew that if he could tolerate the withering jeering of heartless children, then he could handle something like this! Oddly enough, the woman's skin did in fact sound and feel like paper when he pulled on the curl; it came off in a perfect square. It was a picture of a man! "Woah. Who is this Tensuki guy?"

"_Iie_." Nagato denied calmly, gesturing towards the picture with his loosely extended hand, "That is the name of the village in which this man lives. His name is irrelevant - all you need to know is that this man is a former client of this village until he began exclusively hiring shinobi from outside of our country. I would like to have him killed..."

"I think I get what you're saying - send out a message to anyone considering consorting with other villages. _Desho ne_?" Junichi acknowledged, deciding to test out Koyoko's dialect to see if it fit him.

Unfortunately all this did was cause Yahiko, the orange-haired teammate, to laugh uproariously and stroll up to Junichi so that he could pat him on the shoulder and snicker. "That's something that only girls say, I hope you know. I understand that you're from another country, but tou don't have to force yourself to fit in; just be yourself and watch what everyone else does, it'll come naturally to you in time."

"Perhaps we should allow him to begin on his test." Konan suggested, but rather than await an answer, she held out her arms so that countless squares of paper could fly out of her sleves. The paper swarmed over Junichi in a matter of seconds, blinding him and forcing him to protect his face with his arms. When he noticed that the paper had stopped rustling around him, he risked a peek and found himself mysteriously outside of the building he'd entered only minutes ago.

"Now that was cool as hell!" he breathed in awe as he checked his body and hair for abnormalities; finding nothing he grinned while checking the picture he still held in his hand. "I wonder how many villages give an assassination as a genin exam. I must be a special case." he chuckled softly before pocketing the item. He cracked his knuckles in preparation to leave.

- The following day -

Junichi didn't see why so many people had trouble dealing with their first kill; it didn't bother him at all! Although it was true that he might have ended someone's life while acting as a puppet for a real assassin, he was never conscious of what he was doing - now that he was aware, he could honestly say that it didn't bother him. Actually, he found it to be a rush to have someone's fate in his hands - to have full control over whether they lived or died.

Thus he strode through the gates of the Hidden Rain with a broad smile on his face and a skip in his step; this lasted all the way to the building he'd met the second-in-command at. Once again he knocked on the door, but was ready for the trapdoor. He landed in a crouch, one hand on the ground for support, the other thrust out to the side for balance. This time Nagato showed up alone, and he peered at Junichi with the creepy ringed eyes of some active jutsu. "Were you successful?" he inquired calmly, both of his hands again going into his pockets.

"I killed the traitor and hid his body under a broken wagon; thankfully the villagers only caught a glimps of me when I gave the warning not to betray Amegakure."

"As a result we have gained three very large contracts that would have gone to the Hidden Rock had you not intervened. For that I will acknowledge your contribution to our village, and extend an offer of your acceptance into our ranks as a genin of the Hidden Rain and servant of the Land of Puddles." Nagato informed calmly. "Also, I have determined that you are fully capable of performing your duties without additional help; therefore, you are authorized to perform solo tasks, although you are still attached to a three-man-cell under the direction of a chuunin by the name of Okura Mamaji. You will be introduced to him when you have completed your processing into our system."

"How long will that take?"

"You can be finished before noon if you begin now. The door to your right will let you out of this basement." Nagato informed moments before all of the lights went out. When they returned, Junichi was startled to find himself alone, because he hadn't heard anything when the man left - in a room with an inch of water on the floor, this was surprising. True to the commander's word, he spotted a simple door interrupting the continuity of the brass pipes circumventing the dark room. He pushed it open and gawked, because it was the exact same hallway that he'd been in before falling through the trap door - the hidden compartment was even still at his feet! He tapped the plate experimentally with his foot, pulling it back when the trap opened to reveal a dark room below. A dark room with a light spilling in from the right...

"This place is fucked up..." Junichi decided before leaping past the trapdoor and quickly making his way out of the building lest he end up inside someone's head somehow. Seeing as how he had nothing else to do, he had no reason not to get started on his processing. First stop, the photographer!

- Noon -

Four hours of bullshit later, Junichi finally recieved word that his new captain wanted to see him, asking that they meet in one of the training grounds inside the village. This was where he was now, right on time. He drew to a stop in front of a pair of shinobi looking to be in their early twenties and wearing matching outfits, neither of them dressed in the recognized uniform of the Hidden Rain, either. "You the rookie?" the guy Junichi assumed to be Okura Mamaji cut to the chase, his voice oddly aquatic. Of course, it would sound that way when speaking through a breathing apparatus.

"It's Junichi. I assume that you're Mamaji, and she's Tomoshi?" he guessed, to which he received an affirmative. "All I ask is that you don't ever call me by my parent's name and I'm sure that we'll get along fine."

"Well, I'm glad that you're finally here, Junichi-kun!" Tomoshi declaired happily, her eyes seeming to smile since her mouth was hidden and likely occupied by an air tube. "When they told us that we were getting a rookie for our team I got all of the ingrediants to make some energy snacks for all of us. Let's eat them first!" she offered sweetly before pulling out her breathing mask and reaching into a pouch she wore at her side.

"Eat them before doing what?" Junichi asked curiously as he reached out to accept the homemade energy bar wrapped in brown wax paper. "Are we already doing a training session together?"

"How else are we going to see what point you're at?" Mamaji mentioned in a matter-of-fact-like tone. He accepted the snack from his teammate without even looking at her, telling of their long history together. Finally he removed his own mask and took a large bite from the bar and chewed for a moment before addressing Junichi again, "Go ahead and eat - it's Tomoshi's special recipe to give prolonged energy and increases blood flow to the brain. I'll watch you two spar this time; I'm going to be timing it as well."

"I'll go along with it this time, but I really don't need a whole lot of training." Junichi explained, pausing to comment on the delicious flavor of the oatmeal bar, "I believe that excessive training shows a lack of natural skill. I have tons of inherant ability, so I don't need to kill myself with running scenarios every day."

"You know that too little training can also show a lack of intelligence as well, right?" Mamaji reflected quickly before tossing the rest of the bar into his mouth. "I understand that I'm not your daddy, so I'll leave personal training up to you. However, I'm going to schedule periodic exercises emulating past missions Tomoshi and I have been on. You may perform as many solo missions as you like, but keep in mind that you'll also have C and B-rank missions along with us as well."

Junichi couldn't argue with that - he wasn't the kind of person to tolerate being treated like a child after all. Now that he was finished with his own energy bar, he nodded to Tomoshi and crossed to a clear patch of grass to begin sparring. She smiled sweetly before replacing her oxygen mask and trotting out to stand across from him; he took his combat stance and took a steadying breath to prepare himself for battle. Tomoshi vanished suddenly, causing him to stare in surprise at how insanely fast she could move; in that brief second he failed to see her as she reappeared behind him and struck like lightning. Junichi groaned as his vision went black and he fell to the ground like a sack of sand.

"Ah! I'm sorry, Junichi-kun!" Tomoshi exclaimed after yanking the mask away from her face and crouching over his body, worriedly shaking his body in a feeble attempt to wake him up. The pair of brass knuckles she'd pulled on him gleamed in the sun, attracting her attention to the hand-to-hand weapons. "Oh, I knew that I should have taken it easier on him the first time."

"We don't need to hear about your first time..." Mamaji teased offhandedly as he also approached the prone form of Junichi, earning a dark glare from his teammate as he did. He sighed heavily, learnedly checking the back of Junichi's head for blood or fractures. "He'll live; but he's far worse off than what I'd expected from a guy carrying the seal of approval from two separate jounin."

"Hmmm..." Tomoshi agreed sympathetically as she shifted so that she landed on her butt, electing to sit in the grass beside her teammates. "You know, my little sister just took the chuunin exam last month. She lost her first fight in the tournament, but she might be able to help Junichi-kun get caught up to where she is."

Mamaji nodded his agreement. "At the very least, she might be able to get him to the point where he could be useful. See if she'll be willing to take him under her wing for a little bit."

"You guys know that I didn't pass out, right? I heard every fucking word..." Junichi sneered sourly before groaning and climbing into a seated position across from Tomoshi. He rubbed his head and winced momentarily. "I thought you needed a hand seal to use the fast movement jutsu."

"Familiarity with a jutsu makes it easier to do; you can eventually cut them out if you use it a lot." Tomoshi explained. "It doesn't work with everything, though. Like when you ever learn nature manipulation..."

"You mean controlling wind? Like the way Baki of the Sand does it?"

"He's from Sunagakure." Mamaji explained to Tomoshi in response to her confused look. "We'll get into all of that shit after Saya-chan gets done with you. Get out of the grass and we'll take you to see her; she'll be your trainer for now."


	3. The Neverending Storm Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other affiliated characters, locations or ideas. I do own all original content including characters, locations, jutsu and plot lines. Likeness to any real people or places is unintentional and coincidental.

**Chapter 03: A Neverending Storm **

**Part 1**

It was raining heavily outside, which helped because Noriyama Junichi was boldly planning his assault on the small estate in the early afternoon. The reason being that it was common knowledge for ninja to strike during nighttime - he'd be taking anyone inside completely by surprise with his daytime guerrilla attack. Thankfully the sound of the heavy rainfall helped to mask his footsteps as he performed a stealthy jog up to the side of the estate and paused by a simple wooden doorway - most likely a servant's entrance. However, rather than attempt an entry through such an obvious point, he instead began scaling the side of the building, using whatever handholds and hookpoints he could find to provide leverage for his feet and a kunai he'd drawn.

After a deathdefying climb up the side of a wet building, Junichi felt that it would be far safer to infiltrate from where he was rather than risk attempting to reach the roof - a fall from this distance would definitely cause him great harm; something he wished to avoid at all possible. Thus, his luck held out when he found that he'd stopped outside of a bedroom window; and that occupant was too distracted writing in a small diary to notice him peeking in through the glass. Mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do, Junichi ducked so that he was out of view before knocking on the window pane to get the inhabitant's attention. His heart beat hard in his chest as he waited patiently for the person's curiosity to get the better of them, telling them to open the window and peer outside. He almost jumped at the sound of the window opening, yet when the girl leaned her head out to look into the rain, he knew what he had to do.

In one swift strike, Junichi brought the tip of his kunai into the back of the woman's head; her body locked up and she fell limp without ever making a sound. The girl appeared to be around nine or ten years old and was perhaps a daughter to the noble who owned this estate. His heart skipped a beat when his foot slipped from the rain, causing him to lose his footing! Uttering a quick prophane word, he barely managed to catch the open windowsil with his free hand in time to stop himself from falling; his kunai slipped from the girl's head from the jerk of his action, causing her to roll out of her bedroom and crash to the ground. "Son of a bitch..." Junichi groaned, wincing in pain from having all of his body weight put on one shoulder - and with so many pounds of additional weight from his tools and weapons, he found himself in a very uncomfortable place. He then instictively bit down on his knife so that he could grab the windowsil with both hands, finally giving him enough leverage to roll into the bedroom.

Gasping from the effort of saving his own life at the expense of hers, Junichi quickly replaced the kunai into a holster hidden in the pocket created by the overlapping flaps of his gi-like shirt. Thinking quickly, he then turned and shut the window before locking it; hopefully it'd buy him a little bit of time towards completing his mission. "Sorry, little girl, but you weren't quite as lucky as I." he murmured softly before crossing to the bedroom door, opening it only enough to peek out. When he was sure that it was all clear, Junichi darted out and began frantically checking rooms for his target.

"Who are you! The voice caused him to jump, so startled that he whipped around and instinctively flung a kunai in the direction that it had come from. "Kyaa!" a maid dressed in black with white trim gasped and sank in terror to her knees, shivering in fear - the kunai had missed and struck the wall next to her instead of her body.

Scoffing, Junichi quickly strode up to the woman and grabbed her off of the ground, prying the kunai from the wall at the same time. "Don't scream." he commanded as he forced the maid to her feet and placed his knife to her throat as he dragged her backwards into the room she'd just left. Kicking the door shut, the genin released the maid, who tripped over her own feet and fell onto her butt; she looked absolutely terrified, but still had enough reason to listen to his demand to keep her mouth shut. "The master's den - where is it?"

"I'll tell you anything, just please don't rape me!" she begged, shrinking into herself as she clutched her top protecitvely against his assault.

"The den - where your employer keeps all of his expensive collections! Now!" he commanded in a hushed voice, noting the way that the maid was staring at his kunai. Well, of course she was frightened; he'd cooincidentaly drawn the same one he used to kill the daughter with - her blood was still on the blade. Thinking quickly, he put the knife away and instead crouched over the panicking maid, pausing only to flick some of her black hair off of her shoulder before roughly grabbing her on the side of the neck and gazing dangerously into her eyes. "Tell me."

Though emitting a whimpering squeak, the young woman nodded and gulped. "It's on the first floor, across from the library! There's a security camera in the corner to keep the servants from stealing anything, though!"

"Alright. I'll let you go, but if you tell anyone that I'm here, I'll know it and then I'll come and ensure your death. Understand?" Junichi demanded, warningly squeezing her neck enough to choke her for a moment, then he released her and returned to the doorway, again opening it only a crack and peeking out. The maid was crying by now, which caused him a momentary pang of guilt, but he shook it off in light of continuing his mission. "Just fucking great - that's three floors down..." Just then a thought occured to him, one of the numerous ninjas laws he'd learned in Sunagakure seemed to fit this situation very well. "Never underestimate the power of a well-placed low-level skill."

"What now?" the poor, sobbing maid begger when she noticed that Junichi had approached her again. "I won't say..."

"Shut up. Let me see your face." Junichi instructed, though he impatiently grabbed the woman by the wrists and moved her hands himself, causing her to gasp in fright and stare into his eyes with her own, which had reddened from weeping. "Hey, you're kind of cute, actually." he breathed distractedly, but managed to shake it off so that he could back away from the woman and form a hand seal. "_Henge no jutsu_!" With a quick burst of smoke, suddenly there were two of the same maid inside the vacant bedroom; the only difference was that one had a feather duster, though it had since fallen to the floor next to her.

Junichi placed a finger over his lips as he reached for the implement, and once he had it he quickly returned to the door and rushed out of the room. It wasn't going to be too much longer before the dead girl's body was found and the family alerted, so he had to move fast unless he wished to find out first hand whether they had hired bodyguards to watch the estate. Casually flicking the feather duster along random objects as he made his way down three flights of stairs, Junichi hardly noticed that he failed to walk like a girl; and that his act wouldn't fool anyone should he run into any men with wandering eyes. At some point he'd picked up a small cloth napkin from a dining room and stuffed it into his pocket should he find a use for it.

That time came when he finally located the library on the first floor, and he knew that what he'd come for lie just across the hall. Pausing to catch his breath, as the chakra drain from maintaining the transformation was proving to be reaching its limit, Junichi prepared himself to move as quickly as he could. He knew that intrusion into the den was going to trigger an alarm, and if it didn't then the security was no doubt going to become suspicious when he interrupted the camera feed. Temari had showed him this technique once; and although she'd used a small fan, he could only think to hide his face behind the dusty feather duster as he slipped into the room. *Whirr* he heard from the side, glancing up with a jerk of his head to spot the camera attached to the corner - it looked to be aimed in such a way that the entire room could be captured just by swiveling the device. When it made another mechanical sound again before turning away from him, Junichi guessed that it was automated. That was good, because it meant that there was a chance he hadn't been noticed yet.

With the feathers still covering his transformed face, Junichi went into his pocket and retrieved the cloth napkin with one hand. "One chance at this..." he realized before timing his attack. The camera turned back in his direction, and when it did, he dashed forward and dropped the feather duster as he ran up the panelled wall. Holding his breath in concentration, Junichi reached out in mid-air and dropped the cloth over the extended lense of the camera. "Shit-" he hissed when he landed, fearing that he'd made too much noise at the very last leg of his task. Pausing in a crouch with his skin crawling and his heart slamming in his chest, Junichi strained his ears to listen for approaching footsteps. He could hear that it was still raining as heavily outside as when he'd infiltrated; however, this time the luck was against him, for it was difficult to tell if someone was coming over the sound of the pouring rain.

Finding that he had no time left, he threw all caution to the wind and dropped his transformation with a plume of smoke and a gasp. "Where is that damned... aha!" he breathed in relief upon spotting the overly ornate scabbard of an ancient samurai sword set under a glass case over the mantle of a fireplace. He yanked out the bloody kunai from before, seeing as how he only had three of them in his shirt, and quickly slammed it into the glass without thinking. "Ow!" he grunted, pulling his knife away and flexing his hand against the sting in his palm. It was just like that... "It's the same as that boulder Baki made me break!" he realized with dawning realization. Wracking his brain in an attempt to recall how he'd managed it, his eyes went wide and his heart skipped a beat when it came to him. He now knew to go around the hard part and strike at the weaker parts holding it together.

Trying once again, he aimed at the wooden mount under the glass, stabbing the polished finish as hard as he could with both hands. The wood split, revealing the edge of the glass. Laughing in the face of his victory, Junichi jabbed the tip of his kunai between the glass and the mount before working it up and down in an attempt to lever the two apart. With his teeth gritted and uttering a groan of effort, he finally felt the case come free as his knife was yanked out when the glass gave. Panting from the effort and chakra drain, Junichi took a moment to swallow some saliva before seizing the ornate sword and stuffing it securily into his belt before returning the knife to the holster in his shirt. Suddenly his heart jumped in his chest - someone was running down the hallway leading to the den!

"Son of a bitch...!" he hissed in the darkness as he hurriedly crossed to the closed door and crouched beside the frame. Should he trip the person and run, or can he find someway to wedge the door shut so that he could escape a different way. All he knew was that ninjas weren't supposed to get caught, especially not one trying to make enough of a name for himself as to overwrite his parent's fiery curtain call. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the end of the scabbard tapped the wall, but he was able to settle his heart in time to realize that he had a more effective way of ensuring his escape. With the near erotic sound of the sword being drawn slowly, he took the kanata into his hand and marveled at the clean surface in the dim light of the windowless room. Gulping, he worked to settle himself as he turned the sword so that he held the blade down, he now waited in ambush for whoever was making their way to the den. Suddenly the doorknob turned, signaling that the person was just on the other side of the wooden door.

"Hiyah!" Junichi grunted at the same time as he jabbed the sword through the wood, slicing through it as if it were paper; he grinned at the sound of a male voice gasping when the tip of the sword pierced into his stomach. Acting with more adrenaline than actual skill, Junichi tore the blade out of the door and yanked open the door, preparing to reave whoever clean in half with the samurai sword. However, he balked before he was able to bring the blade down - his opponent was another Rain ninja!

"Hey-! What the _fuck_!" the Rain ninja demanded in as much astonishment as Junichi, holding a hand to the bleeding wound under the hem of his chuunin vest.

"Hey-!" Junichi mirrored as he lowered the sword, finding that he no longer had the will to attack a person from his new village. "You're supposed to be a Grass ninja or something!" he accused, gawking at the wound he'd put into a person from his own side. This was bad, because they might think that he was still under that genjutsu and working for the Hidden Sand.

"Why would I be a Grass ninja!" he barked angrily.

"I don't know; the people in this area have been hiring foreign ninja for a while. I just assumed..."

"This guy doesn't, you idiot!"

"How the hell was I suppposed to know that, you dumbass!"

"You should have checked the opposition before doing anything else, you dimwitted piece of trash!" the chuunin roared as he made a retalitory swipe at Junichi with a partially cupped hand.

"I had a mission... besides, you should have been fast enough to dodge the sword if you're a chuunin!" Junichi accused as he took a quick step back to avoid the swipe. Notcing that he still had the sword out, he scrambled to sheathe the blade. This time the chuunin was cut off from retorting when he doubled over in pain and grabbed at his wound. "Hey, you'd better take care of that, big bro." he warned worriedly. "Look - there's a cloth napkin up on that camera, if you can't reach it, then I'm sorry but you're on your own."

"You son of a..." the chuunin growled, but found that he wa sunable to catch Junichi as he dodged around him and made his way out into the hall, darting with haste to the nearest window he could find. Finding himself in a hurry, Junichi went into his shirt and siezed all three of his kunai and flung them all at the window pane; he flung himself through the glass in the same moment that the knives shattered it, hissing lightly at the many cuts he'd gotten from the daring escape. Abandoning the weapons in his play to escape, he sprinted through the rain for the cover of the large bushes used to decorate the lavish yard of the estate; he was practically home free, now!

- Later -

Junichi was lightly puffing for air when he arrived at a different, somewhat larger, mansion than the one he'd just left. Unfortunately the rain had stopped by now, forcing him to stick to the shadows and cover of whatever stuctures he could find to keep himself hidden. It wasn't too much longer before he was able to pry open a window blocked by a hedge and slip inside without a sound. However, he was only able to make it a couple of steps before he stumbled into three full-grown ninjas affiliated with the Hidden Grass of the Land of Bamboo.

"Oh, it's you. Come this way, Iguchi-san has been waiting for you." the leader of the Grass ninja instructed, waving to Junichi as he turned and began leading the group into the estate. It was only several more minutes before he was taken to a den more expansive and stocked with twice as many artifacts as the last one; and seated in the corner was a rich noble dressed in a silken kimono and wearing an ugly, black felt cap.

"You have it!" he exclaimed, his eyes going immediately to the handle of the stolen samurai sword; he licked his lips as if salivating over the acquisition. "Swordsmith Muramasa's finest blade; now mine alone!" he gloated pleasantly as he greedily reached for the blade.

"Yeah." Junichi murmured, pulling the scabbard from his belt and handing the sword over. He may have messed up a couple times, but his contract was now fulfilled and he could be paid as soon as he returned to Amegakure. "One more thing I should mention before I leave, though." he warned as he gestured towards the Grass ninja, "I suggest you drop them and hire the Hidden Rain instead; I'm not sure how long Honzo will let you get away with having these guys around."

"We'll escort you out." the leader of the Kusagakure team grunted as he took Junichi by the collar and more or less dragged him to the main entrance. When they were outside, the man released him, but both of his allys quickly flanked him and caught the teen by both arms, holding him in place. "The only way that Hanzo would find out that we were ever here would be from you." Junichi then gagged and doubled over in response to being punched in the stomach hard enough to lift him off of the ground several inches. He fell to the ground coughing, his eyes watering from the pain in his gut. "I hope you get our message. Now get out of here, kid." Junichi merely nodded and crawled away, waiting until the door closed before staggering to his feet and rushing off, still hunched over from the pain in his stomach. Fucking jounin.

- Sunagakure -

"Sensei, when do we get to do a real C-rank mission?" a rather short, but rotund, little genin grunted when he and the rest of his team finally came to the end of the valley leading into their village. "All we've done are D-ranks and unclassified surveilance crap."

"We just did a C-rank mission, _baka_." the woman jounin retorted as she tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, which had come loose while running back from the nation's border. "You know that anything taking us out of the village is automatically classified as a C-rank."

"I think that he wants to know when we're going to do something where we get to beat people up. _Real_ ninja work." the genin kunoichi of the team clarified with a sort of melodic tone.

The jounin sighed as she shook her head in frustration at her students, growling lightly under her breath as she turned to face the brats. "You won't be doing anything close to what can be called _real_ ninja work until you've become a chuunin. Even then you won't be getting on anyone's good side by being so undisciplined! If you speak out and say that I'm a bad teacher, then I'll sick Gaara on all of you!" she threatened, startling the children with the potant warning.

"At the risk of being killed by that little monster... Can I at least ask when we'll be allowed to do solo missions?" the last genin, a young average-seeming boy asked with his eyebrows raised.

The jounin paused for a moment, as if deep in thought. The truth was that this was a valid question for a student of Sunagakure to ask, so she couldn't yell at him for stepping out of line. Therefore, she put on a smile as she reached out and rubbed the boy's hair, causing his teammates to shout at the injustice. "The ninja of the Sand are well known for their ability to complete tasks alone, though I think that we should give it another couple of months before we split off for solo jobs."

"Hold on a second, sensei!" the pudgy genin interjected sourly, "We've gone out to spy on that stupid carrot guy every time he's gone off on a solo mission - and we've been out five times already! How come that pathetic guys gets to do that stuff and we can't; when we're the ones who've actually had training and he's just some wannabe?"

"Because the Kazekage has decided to use our team to keep an eye on that little Shit-face whenever he gets close to our border! There's no telling when he's going to be killed trying to do something he's not ready for; therefore I was all of you to be ready when it's your turn. Alright?" she flared coldly, pointing at the children each in turn, glaring at them. "This is my first chance at being a sensei, so I don't want to screw it up by having all of you get killed too soon. Alright? **ALRIGHT**?" she shouted.

"Damn... we got it, sensei." the fat genin grumbled as he dug a sausage-like finger into his ear and jiggled it as if clearing out a ringing sound.

"Repent!" the jounin cried as she teleported behind the boy and slammed the side of her hand into his thick neck, knocking the boy unconscious in a single hit. Gasping in fury at the tubby boy's gall, the woman jounin rounded on the other genin and glared at them. "I want both of you to drag him with us while we report to the Kazekage. If you don't like it, then help keep his mouth shut next time!" The genin sighed heavily and shook their heads, but each took hold of a plump arm and began dragging their teammate through the sand.

"Hrrr... just think of it as strength training..." the brown-haired boy grunted to his female teammate, who appeared to already be sweating from the effort of dragging their third ally. "We're going to be like bodybuilders when we get this lard-butt all the way to the Kazekage's mansion."

"Its not a very good look on girls, trust me..." the kunoichi complained, though she barred her teeth and continued pulling. "Let's just try to get him there before nightfall, ok? I have a date that I don't wanna miss."

"A date? Do I know him?" the calmer of the three asked.

"You should..." she trailed out suspiciously.

"Why is that?"

"...do you wanna go out on a date later?" the kunoichi giggled cutely, glancing over at her partner as they dragged the living beach ball through the sand.

"I sure would!" he cheered with an enthusiastic grin.

Offering a soft chuckle, the jounin approached her students and smiled at them, "How about we have a change in the plan, then? His house is a lot closer than the Kazekage's mansion, so drop him off at home and go out somewhere. I'll take the report to the Kazekage by myself, so I want you guys to have a good time. That's an order!"

"Thanks, sensei!" both conscious genin cried happily, redoubling their efforts and practically leaving a spray of sand behind as they lugged their teammate home. The sensei smiled contentedly as she watched her students vanish from sight, knowing that if at the very least they'd get some sort of childhood. The Devil's Child was going to be plaguing them for the rest of their career, because it would only be a matter of time before one of his missions took him back into the Land of Wind, and they'd have to be there to get in his way and make sure that he failed in whatever he was supposed to do - as ordered by the Wind-shadow. To think that she'd be given a task such as this after having served as a student of Junichi's father when he was still alive...

- Amegakure -

The day following his latest solo mission, Junichi once again dressed in his combat outfit - which was little more than cerulean martial arts pants with a smoke-grey gi top, modified to hold kunai in the front flap. He only ever wore it when he knew that a mission would involve killing, or when he was going to be training with his unrelenting teammates. Since the first sameful session against Tomoshi, they had all agreed that he'd need to be mercilessly beat again and again until he could learn to defend himself. Thus, as soon as he was finished tucking the laces of his heavy steel-toed boots into the top of his footwear, Junichi cracked his neck and made for the door to meet with Saya: younger sister of his teammate, Tomoshi.

There wasn't any water in the street around the Akibara household, which he had only recently discovered meant that the weather was warming enough that steam wasn't needed to heat the houses - the steam would preticipate into water upon cooling, hence the puddles the morning after a cold night. However, this made it possible for the sound of his heavy boots to echo more loudly as he approached in a steady and confident pace. It was because of this tip-off that the front door to the house flew open just as he was reaching up to press the doorbell. "Gyah!" Junichi cried when the door hissed as it retracted into the wall, bringing him face-to-face with Tomoshi. All she had on was a pair of slate cotton pajamas, one collar of which was hanging so far down on her shoulder that it was plain to see that she wasn't wearing a bra.

"You're pretty early for a guy who never takes training very seriously. Are you here to pick up Saya?" the young adult teased with a half-grin, her eyes flashing brightly as she leaned enticingly against the doorframe.

"Yeah; I used to train with a girl back in the Hidden Sand who would get violent if I didn't show up half an hour before eight. She had this saying: _If you're not early, you're late_." Junichi replied, returning Tomoshi's grin with a broad one of his own; though his admitedly might have been from seeing the woman in her pajamas. He wondered what she looked like under them, but there was no way he'd be stupid enough to ask; and even fewer chances that he'd actually get to see her in the nude.

Tomoshi giggled melodically before gently running a hand through her hair and shaking her head in amusement. "That actually sounds like something little Saya would say. She's already gone out to the training grounds we always use to warm up before you get there. Seriously, that girl must be aiming to become a second Jinzomaro with all of the training she does!" Jinzomaro was the legendary Rain ninja said to have dealt the death-blow on Konoha's Niidaime Hokage when the rest of his squad fell behind.

Junichi laughed with his teammate for a moment before deciding that he'd have to be going if he was going to get the training session over with in time to veg-out on the sofa while watching a movie. Waving his farewell, he turned to leave. Seconds before he could get on his way, however, he felt a strong kick aimed at his ass, followed my another silly giggle. "Hey! I might be the new guy..." he scoffed upon glaring over his shoulder, only to trail off when he saw that there wasn't anyone in the doorway. Suspicious, he quickly turned back to face forward, only to jump when Tomoshi appeared out of thin air and pinched his nose between two of her fingers, her eyes flashing playfully as she did. "What the hell?" he grunted after prying free of her grip and rubbing his squeezed nose; which was probably turning red by now.

"Saya hates it, too; so I'll give you the next training session off if you can manage to pinch her nose." Tomoshi laughed as she backed away from Junichi, smiling warmly as she tucked her hands behind her back and caught her wrist in the other hand. "Go ahead and get moving, my little rookie!"

"Somehow that doesn't sound as bad as the other names people used to call me; probably because it's coming from you, though." Junichi mentioned as he released his nose and glanced down in his hand to make sure there wasn't any blood.

"That's so sweet of you to say, Juni-kun!" Tomoshi sighed sweetly, pretending to swoon into his arms - he was surprised that she was so soft to hold, when she was so deadly in a fight. "If I'm not careful you might sweep my little sister right off of her feet and make her into a beautiful wife."

Junichi rolled his eyes before simply dropping the woman, though she was acrobatic enough to catch the ground with her hand and flip backwards to her feet before hitting the ground; she landed with a broad smile and a playful wink as she backed through the doorway. Suddenly the door dropped from the wall with another hiss of compressed steam, leaving Junichi sneering at the front of the house. "Yeah, what if I find her and make Saya into a mother while I'm at it?" he grumbled under his breath as he turned and began making his way to the only training grounds he knew about. Thankfully no one heard him, or else he might have been spending the rest of the week in the hospital.

- Training Grounds: Sparrow -

Rather than being an open grove in a forest or patch of ground by the shore of a lake, Training Grounds: Sparrow was inside a building across from the Amegakure academy and supervised by a chuunin who was always on duty. The reason being because it was designed exclusively for genin and chuunin recuperating from injury. Junichi nodded once after signing in for use of the facility directly under Saya's name before striding through the door leading futher into the building. He found Saya inside punching a padded post in time with a popular song that was playing on the speakers; she noticed him in the middle of a spinning elbow strike, emitting a quick "hiya!" when she made contact. Seeing that she was already breathing heavily and sweating lightly from the work-out, Junichi decided to wait for her to catch her breath.

"Hey." Saya greeted between pants as she stooped to grab her towel from the floor to toss around her shoulders. The song came to an end as the girl approached him, her turquoise eyes seeming to burn through his as if they could send out fire. "I wasn't expecting you for another half hour, Junichi-san." the girl mentioned as she accepted a drink from his offered water bottle.

"If we start early, we can finish early. Koyoko-chan is supposed to be teaching me some genjutsu tricks today, so if we can just get this over with..."

"Quick, turn around!" Saya cried suddenly, startling Junichi when she reached up and slapped him. "Come on; face away!"

Without even knowing the reason behind the sudden outburst, the confused genin turned away from the girl as he rubbed his cheek, now slightly warm from being slapped. "What happened? Did you almost flash me or something?" As interesting as that would normally be, it wouldn't have been very hot considering the fact that Saya was only a twelve-year-old girl who had yet to develop any curves - she was what her sister referred to as a late-bloomer.

"Don't be sick, _ano hentai_." Saya replied with a firm slap to the back of his head, causing him to grunt in annoyance and glare at the wall across from him. "If you want to learn genjutsu from anyone, then you have to have a good eye for detail. So tell me what kind of clothes I'm wearing, and what color they are. If you can't do it, then you're not ready to learn anything so advanced."

"I'm getting a little sick of these sudden tests - I think that I've already proven myself over and over again." Junichi sneered sourly, though he sighed and closed his eyes so as to concentrate. "You have on a turquoise sports bra that's been darkened in the middle because of your sweat..."

"Nothing perverted!" Saya growled as she slapped him in the back of the head again, though she was glad that he was facing away so that he wouldn't see her blushing.

"Hit me one more time and I'll go Taijutsu all over your ass!" Junichi barked in irritation, his teeth gritted angrily as he glared at the blank wall again. "Can I continue now, Saya-_sensei_?" he sneered, though the kunoichi refused to grace him with an answer. "Fine. You're also wearing white pants tied around your ankles with string. You don't have any shoes on, though they're normally blue open-toed sandals. You wear a blue Amegakure forehead protector on your forehead to keep your hair our of your eyes - which are hazel. Your hair is cyan, but your eyebrows are dark."

"What about the towel?" Saya prompted stifly, aiming not to give away if he'd answered correctly or not. Her heart began to beat quickly in her chest as she struggled in the relentless grip of anticipation over whether or not he'd get it - this was a test that everyone in her academy class had gotten wrong when they were learning about illusions as well.

Junichi hesitated and scruched up his face as he wracked his brain for the information. Damn him for being too busy comparing Saya to her sister that he didn't even pay attention to such a minor detail. Yet, that minor detail was what had to be the one thing that would determine whether or not he had enough of an attention to detail to learn genjutsu. Taking a deep breath, he cleared his mind for a moment, long enough to realize that someone like Saya wouldn't have a girly color. "Yellow." he guessed, though he said it with so much conviction that even Saya looked down at the towel to reaffirm what color it was.

"It's pink, _desho ne_?" she answered shortly, her voice so heavy with regret that they could have fallen to the ground with a dull slam. "I guess you have no talent for Genjutsu." Junichi's defeated groan was cut off when Saya took off the tower and swung the end at him, swatting him in the face from behind. Acting on pure reflex, his hand shot out and caught the cloth after it slapped him - he narrowed his eyes when he noticed that it truely was pink.

"That's it!" he roared as he twisted around and swiped at the girl with the side of his hand. Unfortunately he was too slow for her, giving Saya enough time to duck the attack and backpedal away from the angered teenager with a smug look on her face. With a gutteral growl, Junichi continued after the girl, attacking her again and again; all of which she either dodged or blocked with skill.

"Are you kidding me, Junichi-san? I have two years of experience over you, and you've only been training with me for a week... How can you expect to win against me?" Saya taunted, grinning smugly when she evaded again, only to strike out with her leg and catch him in the stomach. Junichi groaned and went to his knees with his hands protectively over his gut as he hunched forward in pain. "Now for the finisher!" she advised as the genin pulled back and struck with her palm, aiming to conk him on the head and knock him to the ground. Her hand passed through his face a split second before he burst into smoke. "Kya!"

"_Shuunshin no jutsu_!" Junichi cried after landing on top of a punching post, pausing to regain his barings from using the fast-movement technique he'd learned from Tomoshi. Saya whipped around to stare at him with her mouth slightly agape, having figured out that he'd disguised his hand seals by pretending to be holding his stomach. Before the girl could react, however, Junichi went into the front of his gi and retrieved all three of his kunai; he threw two of them in such a way that they split and went on either side of Saya, trapping her in the middle while he leapt from the post and came down with the last held in both hands as if to impale her on the spot. The two fell to the ground from the force of their collision; Junichi on top and pressing down with his kunai; Saya on bottom and gritting her teeth as she fought his wrists to avoid being stabbed.

"Back off, killer." a bearded chuunin instructed gruffly as he grabbed Junichi by the collar in a vice-like grip, causing the teen to flinch long enough for the man to haul him backwards and toss him off of Saya. Junichi twisted in the air from the technique before landing on his hip and rolling back into a kneel with his kunai held point-down with his eyes set on the back of the chuunin. He was puffing for breath from the adrenalin, but knew not to lose his cool and risk being banned from the premesis. The uniformed shinobi whispered something to Saya as he helped her to her feet, to which she shrugged and smiled at Junichi. "Alright, I believe that Noriyama-san has made his point clear; so for the rest of this session you two may only attack the training equipment or practice with non-lethal techniques. If you want to do more, either take it outside or become strong enough to defeat me."

"No need for that." Junichi grumbled as he rose to his feet and put away his kunai, sore that the Rain ninja had used the name he hated above all others. "I need help with sealing weapons into scrolls anyway."

The chuunin nodded before turning and making for the table on which he'd been seated prior to his rescue. When he was gone, Saya sighed as she yanked Junichi's kunai from the floor and returned them to him. He noticed that she was panting more heavily than he, and that her top was now completely drenched with sweat, making the turquoise seem like a darker color - of course she'd already been training for an hour when he'd arrived. "Alright. We're working on sealing things into scrolls, _desho ne_? What's the biggest thing you've managed so far?"

"Tri-point shuriken, yeah. I can't preserve poison, though; not that I even want to."

"Just the one?" Saya grimaced, worried that he'd be too far behind her own skill.

"Three of them; but I already know how to make them fire out as if thrown." Junichi replied evenly. "I want to eventually get to the point where I can bring enough back-ups to last all night should I need that many. Mamaji-_taichou_ and Tomoshi-san should be able to help me with that, but for now..."

Suddenly Saya smiled, asking him to wait a moment so that she could find her equipment sack to bring out a couple scrolls and several random projectile weapons. "We'll start with four-point shuriken for now, but I'm not going to let you leave until you can do kunai without too much trouble. If we're lucky, you'll be done by lunch."

"With as much natural skill as I have I'd be surprised if I couldn't seal _you_ into a scroll before lunch!" Junichi laughed with a cracked smirk, licking his lips in anticipation as he took the proffered scroll from Saya. For a very brief moment he noticed that he had the perfect opportunity to pinch her on the nose and worm his way out of next week's session, but instead he merely exhaled through his nose and unrolled the scroll. "I won't do that though; because everyone might think that I'm some sicko by walking around keeping a little girl in my pocket."

"Then I don't see how it'll be any different since you're already a pe-r-vert." Saya replied cunningly in a sing-song lilt, cocking her hip as she smirked up at Junichi. "Now let's stop playing around and concentrate on the training, _desho ne_?" Junichi figured that the whole _desho ne _thing was some sort of local colloquialization that girls would use instead of saying "am I right?" or "isn't it?"; he'd once heard of a ninja who'd used -_kore,_ and even -_tteba ne_ at one time. However, he had to concentrate now or else he'd never get back to Koyoko in time to learn some new tricks; the fact that she liked to rub up against him didn't hurt the hormone-driven teenaged boy, either.

- Sunagakure -

Temari panted and let her large iron-fan drop so that the tip was in the sand. Her vision was blurry and her throat dry, but still she refused to relent and give in. Giving up was something that cowards did - it was something that Junichi had already done. Just thinking about him caused her throat to seize and her vision to clear; a powerful roar escaped her as the genin once again hefted her fan and swung it with all of her might, shouting, "Fuuton!" as she filled the tool with chakra. A tiny cut appeared on the leg of the training dummy she was using to practice wind manipulation on - it was an old puppet that Kankurou had outgrown; she was using it because it had been very easy to style it to look just like Junichi. Unfortunately she'd been aiming for the target symbol pinned to the puppet's chest, but missed completely.

"Enough, Temari." Baki of the Sand commanded before striding up to the exhausted girl and taking the weapon from her hands, knowing that she'd have tried it again had he not. He grunted before catching the genin with his other arm, easily lifting the girl off of her feet and laying her over his shoulder as if she were a toddler. "Nature manipulation can take from two to three years to master, so do not be concerned if you're having difficulty."

"No, sensei..." Temari moaned weakly, too depleated of her chakra to put up much of a fight. "The chuunin selection exam is soon - I want to be in it this time."

"Your father has decided to send you and your brothers at the same time. You'll have finished your training in nature manipulation by that time, as well." Suddenly Temari struggled in the jounin's grip until she found the strength to pull free and land with a cold glare; thankfully she was now taking her emotional classes more seriously, so she didn't explode at him. Though that didn't mean she wasn't angry. However, before she could even open her mouth to say anything, Baki cut her off by tossing her iron back. "You're hoping to see Noriyama in the exam. What exactly is your interest in that worthless boy? That ninja of the Hidden Rain."

"You're wrong, _Baki-sensei_; this has nothing to do with him at all." Temari replied cooly, rapidly running through the exercises she'd learned to control her temper. "I've already been a ninja for three years and I think that I'm ready to..."

"It's not negotiable. You'ill participate when I decide the time is right." the sudden gruff voice of her father immediately silenced the young kunoichi. As Kazekage his word was absolutely final. "Baki." the powerful shinpbi paused so that his jounin could drop to his knee in reverence. "Gaara has been acting more dangerous than usual; I want you to concentrate solely on Kankurou while I work with my youngest for now."

"Right away, Kazekage-sama." Baki replied with his head down and both hands in the sand. "What will Temari be doing in the meantime, Shigeru-sama?"

Pausing to glance at his little girl, the Kazekage frowned at the sight of several bruises and many scratches on her body. "You will be resting. I don't like how you've been working yourself to exhaustion every day - you're no use to this village if you're worn out all of the time. After delivering this scroll to the jounin Minagi, you are to go immediately home and relax."

"I'm not worn out, dad." Temari complained sourly as she reached out to take the scroll from his hand, casually noting the Kazekage's seal imprinted on the outer edge - any tampering without the proper seal removal would cause poison gas to spray and all data inside to be wiped. "I hope she's in the jounin lounge, or else I don't take responsibility for anyone ass I have to kick..." she grumbled as she walked away from her father in a huff.

- Jounin lounge -

Minagi-sensei was in the middle of a conversation with the teacher of another rookie team when Temari entered, brandishing the scroll so as to remain unharassed by the elite ninja in the room. "My father wanted me to deliver this to you."

"Thanks, hon." Minagi-sensei smiled as she accepted the scroll, though she hesitated to put it away after glancing at the other jounin she'd been talking to. "Hey, what are you doing right now? Are you busy?"

"Yes. I have to relax by order of my father." Temari grumbled under her breath, though the well-experienced ninja heard every word. "Apparently I'm too worn out and useless."

"Well, I don't think that you're either of those, Temari-san. In fact, I think that you're ready to try something special that no other genin gets to do." Minagi-sensei prompted with a sly grin, her eyes sparkling like a cunning fox's as she held the scroll up; she knew that she'd piqued the girl's attention by the spark that lit in the young woman's eye. "My students have never left Sunagakure before, so why don't you lead them out to Amegakure and deliver this scroll in my place. It's a chuunin's duty to lead others, so this should be excellent practice for you!"

"I'll do it!" Temari decided firmly as she grabbed the scroll, her face ready to crack from her excitement of taking a jounin's place. This meant that the brats would have to do what she said no matter that they were all genin as well; she'd even prove that she was so ready for the selection exam that her father would have no choice but to allow her to become a chuunin ahead of her brothers. Suddenly something sunk in about what she'd agreed to - Junichi was in the Hidden Rain, and she had a reason to be there. Oh, she definitely knew who's ass she was going to have to kick, now!

"Good girl. Now, my students are waiting for me by the northern exit. Oh, and don't be afraid to use force on them if you have to; those boys can be real dummies, if you know what I mean." Minagi-sensei allowed with a grin, causing Temari to return it with a smirk of her own. "Now go on, that's an order." she laughed, winking at the genin before turning back to her friend and shrugging happily.

- Land of Puddles -

Temari grumbled as she approached the Hidden Rain, pulling the shroud she wore as protection against the wind and sand of her home nation closer to her body. "This is retarded - it's rained twice already and we've only been in this country for an hour!" she fumed, glaring up at the grey clouds rolling overhead. She growled when a drop of rain struck her right in the eye, momentarily blurring her vision.

"It's just rain, Temari-san. You should have brought an umbrella knowing that we'd be coming into the Land of Puddles." the chunky genin one year her junior chortled like a pig.

"I think it's romantic and beautiful!" the other kunoichi whispered breathlessly, her eyes sparkling despite the sun being behind the thick clouds. "What do you think, my honey?"

"It's too cold here. I hope we're done quickly so that we can go home soon." the slim boy complained before sighing heavily and tucking his hands into his pockets. "Seeing a Rain ninja doesn't seem so cool anymore. Uhh, no pun in tended." the freezing young boy murmured with a frown.

Suddenly the tubby genin jogged past Temari so that he could climb a tree - a feat no one suspected would have been possible for a boy of his girth - where he set his hand over his eyes so that he could peer into the distance. Because of the rain they hadn't been able to tell how close they were to Amegakure, at least until they were practically on her doorstep. "Hey, there's a fork in the road and a sign up ahead with the Hidden Rain symbol on it. It's weird because it's pointing to the right, even though the sign says its to the left." the boy grunted as he twisted his arms in a feeble attempt to point in either direction with the wrong arm.

"Well, climb higher until you can see the village in the distance!" Temari called out, "We can't be that far from Amegakure by now." However, rather than complying, the pudgy boy lurched out and seized the branch in front of him; his teammates gaped, though Temari merely set her hands on her hips and sneered coldly, "Let me guess - you lost your balance because of the rain, right?"

"I've never climbed a tree before; this is as high as I've ever been. I don't think that I can get down, let along go any higher!" the genin cried worriedly. "How am I going to get down!"

After sharing a glance and sighing heavily, his teammates called out for him to hold still while they climbed up to help up. Yet, it was Temari who acted the quickest. Reaching over her shoulder to collect her iron-fan, she advised everyone to hold still before unfolding the weapon and spinning on her heel; the younger children cried out as the fan spun like a rotory blade cutting through the air as it arced expertly. Sawdust flew and the tubby genin shouted and flailed his arms, his eyes wide with terror; despite the boy's obvious fright, Temari caught the fan with a satisfied grin on her face and a spark in her turquoise eyes.

"Noooo!" he cried out as he plummeted, too preoccupied with worriying for his health to notice his teammates frozen with the hesitation of inaction. Except, rather than landing on his ass or breaking his arm, the boy came down on a huge ball of water that hadn't been there a second ago. "Hey- what?" he gasped over the gurgling sound of water bubbling; a moment later it burst and spilled out into the grass, dumping the boy onto his rump, though from close enough to the ground to avoid hurting him.

"That was highly irrisponsible, miss." a young adult accused firmly as he rose from out of the newly created puddle, his voice muffled and aquatic because of the breathing mask he wore on his face. "You may do whatever you wish in your own country, but I will not allow any incidents or neglegence to be blamed on the Hidden Rain." the masked Ame-nin announced dangerously.

"It wouldn't have come to it if your sign wasn't a puzzle." Temari scoffed, returning the man's glare with a spoiled shrug. "Is that really any way to treat guests who come to your village to deliver important information?"

The Rain ninja sighed as he shook his head under the mask, which had an elongated metallic hexagon bearing the four virticle lines of his village placed above and between the eye peices. "I will treat my guests any way I like. Every second you spend beyond this point you will be under my watch and direction - you all are my burdens until it is time for you to leave." Ignoring the glares he recieved from the Sand genin, the man chuckled coldly before removing the mask and pushing it up to rest on his head, covering his slicked-back brunette hair. "Besides, if it was a puzzle you'd have to be pretty slow if you couldn't solve it. See? Pointing right means that you go East; the Hidden Rain is on the left after that."

"I knew that! I was just testing them!" Temari lied shortly, finally having lost the temper she'd been failing to keep.

"We're sorry if we were out of line, but can we hurry up and get out of the rain already? I don't want my sweety to catch a cold." the younger girl urged, though she was still in the process of helping her larger teammate to his feet and brushing wet grass from his clothes.

"Actually, I think I have to take back what I said earlier: maybe seeing a skilled Rain ninja is worth the journey. He did save-" the slim boy began, but was cut off when a second Rain ninja dropped in, landing on the same branch that had been sliced off by Temari's fan. This one was unquestionably a girl ninja; her tight wetsuit left no reasonable doubt by the way she crouched on the branch with her knees held wide apart. "Woah! See?" he gawked like a child catching his first glimpse - which he was.

"Hi. Don't worry about the squad leader; we'll take excellent care of all of you while you're guests of Amegakure and the Land of Puddles." the woman reassured aquatically, though only the bottom half of her face was hidden by the breathing apparatus she wore. She also had an elongated plate on her mask bearing the Rain village's symbol where her mouth was. "My name is Tomoshi; and he's Mamaji-_taichou_. We'll take you to the Hidden Rain without any problems, but you can't leave our sight while you're there. Alright?"

The three genin under Minagi-sensei's command all shared a stunned glance when they finally recognized the two chuunin. They had enough information on their former ally to know about the team in which Junichi had been placed upon defecting to the enemy. They wouldn't speak a word, else they'd risk blowing their secret orders right out into the open and possibly risk becoming captured and interrogated for years. This was going to be touch-and-go with no room for error; suddenly the mission didn't seem like such a hassle...


	4. The Neverending Storm Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other affiliated characters, locations or ideas. I do own all original content including characters, locations, jutsu and plot lines. Likeness to any real people or places is unintentional and coincidental.

**Chapter 04: The Neverending Storm**

**Part 2**

- Amegakure -

Two days into his relaxation period, however, Junichi woke with a start to find someone sitting on his lap and staring in confusion into his face. "What? What happened?" he asked, noting the heavy sound of his own breathing. What had he been doing in his sleep!

"You called me Temari-chan. Were you dreaming about another girl?" a woman with green tresses wondered, a smirk tugging at her lips as she leaned in to press their foreheads together. "Who is she, Junichi-kun?" It only took him another moment to realize where he was and who the woman was. He found that it was actually Koyoko sitting on his lap, though they were still on the living room couch.

"Temari-chan?" Junichi blinked a couple times to clear his head as he tried to remember what his dream had been about. "No, she's just some genin I knew when I lived in Sunagakure. I must have been remembering a training session I had with her once, though I don't know why. I doubt I'll ever even see that girl again." he figured with a shrug. "Wow!" he gasped when Koyoko pressed herself against him and nuzzled his neck, her hair managing to tickle his nose as she did. He'd always loved how Koyoko wore her hair: styled in three ponytails high on her head, each set with a platinum ring.

"Well, if you were just dreaming about training, then I have nothing to worry about. If you don't love this chick, then you're not going to abandon us to run off and be with her."

"Not a chance." Junichi agreed breathlessly. Even knowing that Koyoko was a tease who maintained a healthy level of pride in her body, he couldn't help but react to her close contact. The Hidden Rain completely rocked compared to what he had in the Hidden Sand!

Koyoko chuckled as she pulled back and smiled at him. "There's a reason I woke you up, though. You just got another solo mission to carry out, _desho ne_!"

"I met another girl who uses that _desho ne_ dialect. I really like it, _desho ne_." Junichi chuckled, though he stopped when Koyoko doubled over holding her stomach as she laughed heartily at him. He frowned when she climbed off of his lap, covering his mouth in a feeble attempt to contain her laughter. "What? Did I say it wrong?"

"Hehehe... that's the usage that only girls use, silly!" Koyoko laughed, her eyes watering from her mirth as she stalked around the room laughing. "You're too cute! Guys are supposed to use '_desho ka_', you know! Otherwise you just sound like a sissy, _desho ne_?"

"...I'll just keep the way I already talk..." Junichi grumbled as he climbed off of the sofa and stretched. When he was done flexing he dropped back onto the seat and patted the cushion next to him, asking for Koyoko to sit next to him. Just as he'd hoped, the jounin sat close enough that her leg brushed against his. "Did they tell you what they wanted me to do on this solo mission?"

"Just take the list of which genin are going to participate in the chuunin exam this year to the village hosting the war games. Nothing too dangerous, of course." Koyoko replied with the kind of shrug that caused her assets to bounce deliciously; obviously it was her intention all along by the knowing grin she gave Junichi when he found himself staring. "I could go with you if you like."

"Nah. I think I'd like a little time to myself, actually. Junichi declined meekly as he rubbed the back of his head, smiling slightly in hopes that he didn't hurt her feelings too much. She was already killing him now; but when they got to the Hidden Sand and she realized how hot it was outside... His head could explode. "Any idea where the exam is being held?"

"I don't know, I didn't think to check. It should be Konoha next, because Takigakure had it last." Koyoko mentioned thoughtfully as she tapped a finger against her chin, seeming uneffected by the rejection. "There are some very pretty girls in Konoha, so don't forget to take your time and enjoy yourself. You like pretty girls, _desho ne_?"

"I'm seeing plenty of them right here, but I'll try to enjoy myself."

"Oh, you flirt!" Koyoko laughed as she rose from the sofa and pulled him up after her, "Go ahead and get ready; I'll be waiting for you to get back."

Junichi decided to take his time getting to the mission distribution center. When he arrived, he strolled into the office and flashed his Amegakure ID to the receptionist, who directed him to the door which served genin. Upon entering, Junichi was urged up to a chuunin nearly hidden behind a wall of pipes and tubes, only a square cut at face level allowed the two to interact. "Yeah, I have a mission to deliver the names for the chuunin exam." he claimed.

"Yes, you were." the middle-level ninja acknowledged as he shifted some papers around out of sight. "Here you are, bro." the guy said as a tube opened and a scroll appeared inside a bin that swung out, "You are to take this to the Kazekage in Sunagakure and return immediately."

Junichi jerked his head up from the scroll to get a good look at the chuunin. "Hey, is that such a good place for someone like me to go? Sunagakure and kind of have a history." That was where Baki of the Sand and his student Temari lived; he wasn't quite ready to reveal to them where he'd ended up. At least until he had more to show for it.

"Why? Are you tempted to stay there? Would you honestly go back to the people who enslaved your mind and treated you like a piece of shit?" the knowing chuunin queried softly, his eyes carefuly locked with Junichi's.

"It wasn't quate as bad as you make it sound. What I'm more concerned with is..." but he paused. Concerned about being captured and tortured by Sand ninja? As if _**he'd**_ be captured by anyone! "Never mind. I'll be back before Friday. I hope."

"You'd better. Captain Mamaji has requested a dangerous mission for around that time; it'd be unfortunate to mess up so early in your career by missing something this important." the chuunin warned darkly, keeping his eyes fixed carefully on Junichi. Gulping slightly, the teen accepted the scroll and stuffed it into the front of his shirt before making his way out of the building to begin on the day long journey back to the land of his childhood. Well, at the very least he was guaranteed a lot of alone time; it was something he hadn't enjoyed since living by himself in Sunagakure.

- Elsewhere -

Temari and the other genin gaped in awe as they followed their chuunin escorts across the threshhold into Amegakure; they had never seen a city quite like it before in their lives. Thankfully it had stopped raining by now, though it was only a matter of time before it started up again. Temari quickened her step so she could approach the two Rain ninja with a question, "I take it that I'm supposed to be giving this-"

"We're." one of the students, the fat genin that had been rescued from his fall, corrected with a grunt. His teammates had been too busy whispering to each other about the pipes and steam vavles to notice.

"Whatever." Temari relented with a roll of her eyes, sighing in annoyance at the interruption. "We're taking this to the leader of your village, right?"

Mamaji shook his head, "There's no way the Great Hanzo would bother himself with something so-" he began, but was cut short when his teammate set her hand on his arm and smiled at him. He chuckled before running a hand through his hair and murmuring, "All of these genin are driving me crazy. This's why I can't wait for the rookie to become a chuunin, you know? Too bad he isn't on this upcoming exam." The genin again shared a pointed glance, silently soaking in any information that they could in concern with their target. "But, no..." Mamaji corrected as he turned back to Temari, who was walking on his left, "That scroll goes to Nagato-san in the administrative building. We're almost there now."

"Do you think that we can make a stop after we deliver the scroll? There's someone I want to see before going back to Sunagakure." Temari mentioned in an even tone, though she kept her eyes pointed forward with an intense look on her face. "He's got to pay..."

"We'll discuss it after we get out of the admin building. Come on and pile in, little ones." Mamaji instructed as he pressed a switch in order to open the brass door with a hiss of decompressing steam. Tomoshi led the way into the building, urging the genin to follow her so that Mamaji could shut the door behind them and take up rear security.

"Rear security? Does that mean he wants to look at our butts?" the slim boy snickered crudely, causing his girlfriend to gasp and cover her behind with her hands. "Don't worry, my sweety; I'll protect you and your butt." The girl nodded and blushed, but couldn't bring herself to say a word through her embarassment.

Ignoring his teammate's antics, the husky genin approached Temari in the hallway with a suspicious look on his hard-set face. "This person you're looking for... how do you know him?"

"None of your business, brat." the blonde returned harshly, glaring down at the kid as she reached menicingly for the iron-fan tucked into the back of her sash. "You wouldn't know him in the first place anyway, so you might as well go play with your teammates while the real shinobi do their jobs."

"I'll bet it's that carrot-guy, Captain Combustable. The dumbass who made an idiot of himself in front of Shizuhara-sensei's classroom." the boy risked a guess, though he grinned like a wolf when Temari inhaled suddenly, her eyes going wide as she realized that he did in fact know who she wanted to run into. "So, I'm right. You like him so much that you traded with sensei so you could come all the way out here just to see him."

"One more word and you are _**so**_ dead!" Temari hissed under her breath, glaring sideways at the boy with her teeth bared so he could see her intent. "The only thing I want to see from Junichi is me with my foot in his face!" she declared fiercely, huffing her displeasure.

As the procession entered a door leading out of the hallway, Mamaji-_taichou_ came to a stop near to a person who had just come out of a different door. "That little girl knows you, rookie?" he inquired of the green-haired genin standing just behind him just after the door hissed shut in front of him.

"That's Temari-chan: the girl I told you about when you asked me where I'd learned the basics." Junichi replied coldly, standing with his arms crossed and his face set into a sneer. "I don't even want to bring myself down by seeing her right now. I'm going on ahead to take care of this delivery, but I'll be back in time for the mission."

"Be very careful about who you interact with - it took our genjutsu specialist three days to break their control over you last time. It may be impossible to reverse if you fall under their genjutsu again." the chuunin warned softly before leaving the rookie to enter the room behind the visiting Sand genin. Mamaji let the door shut behind him as he drew up to the back of the group and came to a stop with his arms crossed over his chest just as Temari was handing a scroll to one of Nagato's possessed bodies - this one was a cute woman with orange hair and black studs on her face and collarbone, but had small breasts and a scar on her cheek.

"I thank you for delivering this to us, Minagi-san." Nagato replied, unaware that Temari had switched with the jounin actually meant to bring the scroll. "Your team is welcome to stay in our village for as long as you like. Of course, you will need to remain with your escorts at all times - it's our policy when permitted foreign shinobi into Amegakure."

"It's fine." Temari muttered with a wave of her hand, "We're only going to bother you long enough to have a talk with that idiot. Let's move." she directed, turning to lead the group out of the building.

However, a hand came down on her shoulder to stop the girl before she could make it past the chuunin Mamaji. "There's no point in dragging everyone around for your own personal gain. If you really want to find this young man, then only you and I will search the city. Tomoshi, would you mind watching the others by yourself?" Temari glanced over to the woman in time to see her smile and nod kindly, returning the gesture with a smile and nod of her own. It would be better this way, because she'd be able to talk about things and didn't want everyone to listen in anyway.

"Ok. Do you have any idea where a dumbass named Noriyama Junichi lives?" the genin prompted as the pair left the room first, Mamaji's hand still on the girl's shoulder so as to lead her out unmolested.

"Ah, the rookie who appeared out of nowhere." Mamaji misdirected cunningly, his face completely hidden by his oxygen mask. "He lives with one of our jounin for the time being. It shouldn't be a hassle to track the boy down."

"Good! Because he's so gonna get it when I see him!" Temari promised as she punched the palm of her left hand, grinning as she followed the chuunin out through the main door of the building. She didn't even care that it was raining once again.

- Land of Puddles -

Junichi jogged through the rain that had started up almost as soon as he'd left Amegakure, though it hardly bothered him by now having lived in the country for several weeks by now. He was also already wearing the midnight blue shroud he used to wear in Sunagakure to protect against wind and blown sand, though he now wore it for a completely different reason - when combined with a cap-style forehead protector it acted to conceal his identity, thus making it more difficult for the Hidden Sand to realize that he was once again in their midst. Furthermore, he'd made a pit stop in Koyoko's house, though he wouln't be using that until he got closer to his destination.

He raced across the surface of a lake, wordlessly dodging around an abandoned fisherman's boat left over from a mission failed by a group of Rain genin, but made sure that he went through a field of cat-tails in an effort to mask his trail. He spotted a sentry crow perching on a low branch as he took to the trees of a small forest, though he ignored it because it belonged to ninja of the Hidden Rain - he knew because the tree was marked with the four lines of his village. Except for his random efforts to avoid detection, Junichi more-or-less arrived at the border without any event, but he hesitated to cross into the Land of Wind.

"This should be close enough to use it, now." he mumbled to himself as he fished into a secret pocket in his clothes. Finally retrieving his secret weapon, the teen dropped to one knee as he pulled off his Rain village headband and worked to detach the plate with his fingers and the tip of a kunai; it came off after a moment of struggle, leaving six holes where the metal had been bolted in place. When he was finished with his sudden project, Junichi returned the cap to his head and adjusted the fabric so that it covered all of his hair - rather than the four lines of the Hidden Rain, it now bore the hourglass of the Hidden Sand. He'd used the same headband that Koyoko had taken from him when she broke the genjutsu. "Anyone seeing me will just think that I'm a Sand ninja returning from a mission. I'll be able to drop off this scroll and be on my way before anyone catches on to who I really am. How ninja is that!" he chuckled to himself.

When he was ready, Junichi darted across the border with his arms flung out behind him; there was still grass to run on, so he needn't worry about footing for the time being. Which was great, because now that he had time to himself, Junichi couldn't help but think about Temari. She'd definitely helped him out when they were younger, and though he did have other friends, she was usually the one who managed to cheer him up when he was down or losing hope of learning a specific technique. She was also the person who beat him up the most; even when he didn't deserve it, and knew that the beating wouldn't help him in any way. Then again, on the rare occasions when she'd smile at him...

Finally he slowed to a stop so that he could wipe sweat from his brow. Breathing heavily, Junichi went into the travel pack on his back and withdrew a canteen full of water that he'd brought along to combat dehydration - one of the Sand ninjas greatest enemies. After draining half of the liquid, Junichi replaced the water source before licking his lips and gazing over his shoulder, where he knew Temari was still looking for him back in Amegakure. "Silly girl." he scoffed before shaking his head and taking off at a jog again, steadily increasing his speed as he dashed across the crest of a sand bar in the desert. He'd have to find some shade in an hour to prevent heatstroke, but until then he was going to make as much progress as he could.

- Amegakure -

Nagato, still in control of the woman's body, slowly approached the reveared leader of the Hidden Rain with the scroll taken from Temari held in her hands. She did not kneel, bow, or perform any other form of humbling gesture as she handed the object to the legendary man. "Hanzo-sama, I find it to be extremely unorthodox to have sensitive demands from the Hidden Sand delivered to us by a group of genin. It's almost an insult to think that they're taking this matter lightly."

"It hardly matters if I receive the Kazekage's demands or not, they will change nothing at all." Hanzo informed his second-in-command as he removed the seal and unrolled the scroll over the top of his desk. "I've already refused to allow their assassins entry into this village should they prove to have more targets than one errant boy. The Hidden Sand doesn't have the kind of sway that they believe they do." Nagato waited in silence as Hanzo read through the scroll, refusing to react as the man chuckled and then scowled angrily. "The Kazekage recognizes that the boy we've accepted has chosen to defect to the Hidden Rain under his own volition and will not betray the treaty of peace by infiltrating our village. However, he's demanding that I have my own assassins murder him; or issue a mission that he will not survive - otherwise he'll call for a meeting of the Five Kage in concern with my failure to cooperate with peacekeeping motions."

"If the same threat had come from the Hidden Rock or Hidden Cloud I might be compelled to urge cooperation. In this case, I don't feel that the Hidden Sand retains as much of their former military power as they make it seem." Negato replied smoothly, her eyes momentarily flicking from the document to meet Hanzo's eyes. "If we could gain leverage over the leaders of the Hidden Grass and the Hidden Waterfall, we could have enough backing to make demands of our own. Demon for demon, leader for leader, your second against the entire council of Sunagakure..."

"No. I do not wish to bring war back to this country, or any other for that matter. This one boy is hardly grounds for so many shinobi losing their lives." Hanzo decided as he sat back in his plush chair and began considering his options he listlessly drew his fingers along his chin, though there was no beard to stroke. Finally, the great Hanzo who had once defeated Konoha's greatest team of ninja of which he recognized as the Legendary Three Ninjas of the Hidden Leaf, stood from his seat with a dark look in his eyes. "Send a message to Sunagakure that if they wish to see an end to this matter, that the Kazekage should send a team to reclaim the traitor. The location will be at the Benizani Crossroads."

"The place where a Sand and Rain commander from both sides died fighting to the death so that their men could return to their respective homes without further bloodshed." Nagato acknowledged with a quick nod. "I'll have the message delivered using the same messanger sent by the Sand. With your leave..." she prompted, exiting the room when granted permission by Hanzo. Elsewhere in the village, however, a completely different Nagato frowned in the darkness of his underground chamber; his teammate, Yahiko, was already with him from before the meeting with the leader of the Rain. "That old fool is rapidly losing the edge which defeated us a decade ago, Yahiko-kun. How much longer do we lick his boots before...?"

"Very soon, bro." the orange-haired jounin replied with a firm pat to his friend's shoulder, "Konan is making the final preparations, but there's something else we have to figure into our plans before we make our move this time."

"Please don't tell me that it has anything to do with the Sand ninja who just changed sides. If so, tell me how a low-ranking shinobi with no special abilities could affect our plans at all." Nagato growled dangerously, his Rinegan seeming to blaze through his friend's face. Before Yahiko could say a word, a flurry of paper blew in through an open pipe, reforming into the shape of a full grown woman with a paper flower in her hair. One of the sheafs remained in her hand, however, appearing to be a document of some sort she'd brought with her.

Konan cleared her throat before bringing the paper up to her face so that she could read it aloud. "I have copied the personal file for Mr. Nariyama Junichi from the Sunagakure archives. Results from a recent psycological and tactical potential examination reveals that Mr. Noriyama has an innate ability to detect structural weakness as well as a remarkable level of reactive thinking and reaction time. He also favors violence and intimidation over submission and diplomacy; but he has no respect for authority, nor does he work well in a team setting." After tucking the sheet away into the folds of her kimono, the blue-haired jounin approached Yahiko so that she could put an origami crane in his hand - it was a self-delivering message which would fly to its target when released nearby. "These are the demands that we'll be making to the Hidden Sand when we have proper leverage over Kusagakure, Takigakure, and Yuugakure."

"Alright. We have to make sure that this kid survives the suicide mission before we move on anything," Yahiko decided, his face difficult to read by even his friends. "Should he live, his destructive skills will be most handy to us when he has attained the rank of chuunin. Otherwise, we move on what plans we already have when Hanzo makes the fatal mistake I know that he's working towards."

"The Hidden Rain will be liberated and all past grievences paid back through vengeance of blood." Nagato acknowledged coldly, his statement causing smirks to come to his teammate's faces.

- Elsewhere in Amegakure -

Temari suddenly found herself looking off into the south; there had been a single fork of lighting crashing down from the heavens just on the horizon. Beside her, Mamaji didn't seem so surprised, claiming that it wasn't an unusual phenomenon. "I guess you'd know more than me." the girl relented hesitantly, finally taking her attention off of the distance. "Damn it. Where is that prick if he's not at home or training? You're sure that he's not on a mission?"

"He's not, or I'd be with him, too. Who's ever heard of a genin going on missions without his captain?" Mamaji misled with a disarming smile again. While the truth was that he wasn't stalling for Junichi's sake any more, it was just too entertaining to trick someone from the Hidden Sand - even if it was only a little girl.

"Damn it." Temari repeated more harshly, stomping her foot on the thick pipe on which the two stood. "I don't even want to hit him anymore; I just want to yell at you for being a coward!" she shouted into the wind. Her voice wouldn't reach Junichi from where he was, though the scream did act to help calm the girl. "Forget it. I'm going to collect those brats and just go home now. Tell that idiot next time you see him that I'm not mad at him."

"Actually you might see him before I do, little one." Mamaji chuckled softly as he removed his mask only enough to wink at Temari, "The rookie is delivering a scroll to the Kazekage right now - he's been in Sunagakure the whole time!"

Temari's jaw dropped as the realization struck her that she'd been played hard without ever having caught on - and the worst part about it was that everyone in Sunagakure would consider it to be her fault for falling for the fake-out. "Ohh!" she snarled, at long last forgeting all of her emotion training as she clenched her fists in rage. "You'd better bring me to the other genin from my village right away this time or I'll sick Gaara on you for sure!"

"I don't know who that is, but the joke has run it's course already." Mamaji chuckled from behind his breathing mask, pleased with himself and his sly game. "Come. I'll take you to Tomoshi and your friends now. Try to keep up, little rookie." Temari grumbled under her breath, but relegated herself to following the chuunin through the city, hoping that he felt her glare burning through the back of his head. Just as promised, the pair found the others just as they were leaving a pagoda serving sweet baked treats. "The brats are going home; let's drop them off where we found them."

"Where's Junichi-kun? Did you not find him?" Tomoshi wondered between bites of a dango she'd ordered. "Or is he doing another solo mission again?"

"Come on, we're going back to Sunagakure as soon as..." but Temari was interrupted when a ninja dressed in the uniform of the Hidden Rain landed in the center of the group, all of which went into a combat stance out of reflex. "I've had enough already!" she growled.

"Temari: daughter of the Yondaime Kazekage." the man, clearly a jounin, acknowledged as he stared down at the blonde girl with her hand on the end of her iron-fan. "I will have a word with you in private." he ordered before dragging her away before waiting for an answer - Temari only allowed it because she was too angry not to bother fighting. "You will deliver this message to your father without delay. Understand that if you're here playing the part of a chuunin, then you _**will**_ be upheld to the same standards and responsibilies should you fail your task." The jounin waited for Temari to cross her arms and accept before reaching under his flak vest to produce an envelope sealed with ninjutsu. This he handed to the girl with orders that no other person may read it other than the Kazekage before vaishing in a burst of smoke.

Temari stuffed the letter down the front of her shirt, tucking the paper into her bra, before returning to the rest of the group with her hands on her hips. "I hope all of you are ready, because we're leaving right away!"

"_Hai, Temari-sensei_." the tubby genin sneered shortly. "If it means that we won't have to deal with you anymore, then I'm ready to leave twenty minutes ago." It was Temari who'd delayed them, after all.

"Alright, brats. Let's move." Temari instructed, waving them along as she took off at a quick march that wouldn't tire the children out, but would still get them to where they were going. The genin of Minagi-sensei's team all shared a look proving that they all understood the real reason why they wanted to get back quickly. They had a lot of information for their teacher that they'd gathered on their target, Junichi. It was such a thrill knowing that even as rookies they were trusted with special orders; it made them feel more a part of the village than had they been a normal team vying for enough attention to be recognized by the people that mattered.

- Sunagakure -

Junichi nearly jumped out of his skin when a Sand ninja appeared out of nowhere to run alongside him, but became more confused that worried when the man didn't attack him or make any move to stop him from running. When Junichi didn't offer an explanation, the jounin - or he assumed it was - nodded towards the village and grunted. "You've tripped the proximety alarm; is there a reason why you're running towards the village at this speed, chuunin?"

So he resembled a chuunin, did he? Seeing that this could work in his favor, the teen nodded before reaching into his shirt and retrieving two objects to show the man. Junichi flashed his own Rain headband as they ran, "I caught a foreign ninja snooping around where she shouldn't have been. I took a scroll from her body that the Kazekage urgently needs to see." he lied as he flashed the scroll before stuffing it back into his shirt. Oh, he was playing it dangerous now; the Sand ninja could kill him if he so much as suspected foul play.

The jounin seemed to believe him, or at least didn't want to take the chance that he might have stopped an extremely important message from getting through at a critical time, so he nodded before reaching up to press a switch by his ear. "We have an Urgency Exception. Authentication Code: Bravo is in effect to permit unrestricted entry to the Kazekage. Do not hinder. Do not engage."

Junichi nodded his thanks to the man, though he was barely able to contain his smirk as he picked up more speed; the Sand ninja faded back until he stopped completely so as to radio ahead to the Kazekage to expect the message. Knowing that he had a part to play, the disguised teen rushed through the valley into Sunagakure without greeting the guards, and immediately took to the familiar roofs over the village. It wasn't too much longer before a chuunin he recognized - but whom couldn't ID him through the veil over his mouth - met him near the Kazekage's mansion and urged him along. Shit, he could get into some serious trouble if he whipped up a panic before revealing the truth.

Unfortunately it was too late to turn back now; the mansion had come into view and he was being rushed straight to the Kazekage's office without delay. Thus, before he could talk himself into coming clean, he was directed past the guards and the door shut behind him - the Kazekage had the veil open, revealing the powerful Wind-shadow in all his glory. "What is the nature of the information that you found. Out with it!"

Sighing, Junichi let his shoulders fall before reaching up to pull down the cloth covering his mouth and nose at the same time as he removed the Sunagakure headband. "Alright, so I got a little carried away. I didn't think that you'd let someone like me into the city without a hassle, but somehow let it get way out of hand."

"You!" the Kazekage growled harshly enough that it hurt his throat. The guards on either side of him went immediately on the ready, prepared to exact swift justice should their blades be required. "A stunt like this is easily worth an execution on any grounds. Tell me one reason why I shouldn't have you flayed alive and whatever left of you fed to the scorpions."

"I got nothin'." Junichi grumbled as he withdrew the scroll and held it out to be collected by one of the flanking assistants, "These are the names of all Rain genin participating in the chuunin selection exam that Sunagakure is hosting this time. No, I'm not in it, either."

The Kazekage accepted the scroll with a glare before tossing it to the side for another aid to catch. "I demand to know why the hell you turned your back and instead went to the Rain, even knowing that I was prepared to accept you as a genin of the Hidden Sand? What could you have possible gained there that was unavailable here? Both of your parents would be ashamed to learn of your actions, Noriyama."

"No one knew my god-damned parents, for one thing!" Junichi shouted in return, snarling at the way the assistants bounced as if striking him in their thoughts. He didn't give a shit now that he'd pretty much been told outright that he was going to be executed for creating a false emergency. "Maybe it's because they had to break the mind control your village had on me against my will! I was so grateful that I jumped at the chance to join my rescuers. All I had to do was be myself and do what I did best."

"I've had enough of this whelp." the Kazekage decided as he yanked the curtain back in place between the two of them. "On charges of reckless endangerment and impersonation of a shinobi of the Hidden Sand, I sentence the young Noriyama to suffer two hours of torture before his expulsion from this village. Take him away!" Junichi scoffed and struggled to free himself from the crushing grip of the two assistants who grabbed him on orders, but found himself powerless to escape. Then again, at least he knew that he'd be released; all he had to do was survive an eternity of agony for a couple hours.

Junichi was taken to the basement of the mansion, and was immediately assaulted by the rank oder of stale sweat, mold of some kind, and the after effects of fire having burnt something distasteful. His blood seemed to run cold as he was taken to a heavy locked door which led to the torture chamber secretly maintained despite agreements to dismantle it in accordance with treaties signed. One of the chuunin escorting him through the door instructed him as they approached their final destination, "Any resistance and the sentence automatically changes to an order of execution. Keep that in mind and you might be able to crawl away from this when it's over." the bearded assistant informed gruffly as he tied the pacified teenager's hands behind his back with prickly rope. "Oh, and remember to scream as loud as you can, because our man lives for this shit and deserves to get his jollies off."

"Fuck you, homo." Junichi spat boldly, though he complied by not resisting the men as they ripped off his shroud and the shirt under it, bearing his naked chest. His outburst of course earned him a rough punch to the back of his head, momentarily blurring his vision long enough that he was placed into a wooden contraption and strapped in place before he could recover. "Are we going to get this tea party started yet, or are you going to finish playing with yourself first?" Junichi crudely insinuated of the sinister ninja fiddling with an iron furnace attached to the wall; his bravado was an obvious defense for the pain soon to come.

"Now, I would say something witty and clever to frighten you... but I feel it's more effective to show you how you're going to spend the next two hours." the creepy Sand ninja said in a raspy hush. Junichi suppressed a shiver when the man turned to face him, displaying a mouth full of crooked and dirty teeth; yet his eyes were the feature which burned into the teen's memory. Black sclara with irises as thin silver rings circumventing red pupils. After giving a spine chilling laugh, the man reached for what looked like the handle of a katana sticking out of the side of the furnice, which was now roiling with black smoke and fire. "Let's begin the process with a bit of heat, shall we? No, no, don't get up; this won't take very long at all." he hissed with laughter.

Junichi gritted his teeth as his torturer pulled the blade from the wall, the metal glowing and wreathed in flame; his eyes were locked on the brand, rounded with fear of what was to come. His breath quickened upon its own accord as the man drew closer with the weapon in hand, the flickering fire reflecting off of his eyes as he walked nearer. "Do you even know how to use that thing? You seem like the kind of guy who must have his opponents tied down or else he'd get beaten by every child in the village."

"Remember to scream." the creepy ninja urged with a wicked grin twisting his lips, having ignored the barb. He then moved with great speed to plunge the glowing blade into Junichi's stomach. The teen gaped in horror as the scorching metal stabbed all the way through him, the fire roaring brighter and hotter as it tasted his flesh. It was the worse agony he could imagine - a scream tore from his lips against his will. "Beautifully done. Bravo." the sninister figure wheezed before ripping the blade free and holding his hand over the wound, "A little medical ninjutsu and we can keep this going all day; a shame that we only have so many hours together." Junichi grimmaced as he hissed in pain, but saw no escape from his predicament - he'd royally fucked up this time.

He screamed again when the cruel man brought the sword down into his thigh, and he could feel the tissue and muscle fibers burning from the seering contact; it was worse than it should have been because his leg was strapped down, preventing him from mitigating the feeling by kicking out. Again his torturer touched his hand to the wound as the blade was removed, mending his flesh so that Junichi wouldn't die before suffering through everything. He groaned when he tested his leg and found no lingering burns. Finally, as the Sand ninja was pulling back the sword for another stab, Junichi found his voice so that he could acknowledge what he'd just figured out, "It's genjutsu made to influct pain - the handle is real, but the blade is an illusion..." he guessed with his teeth gritted and his eyes focused on the other guy's creepy visage.

"Ohh, bravo. By telling your brain that you're being burned you suffer the pain but leave no traces of infliucted wounds. Unfortunately just knowing the trick won't help you counter the effects - no matter what you're going to feel everything." the Sand ninja cackled horribly. "Even when I do things that would normally kill you-" Junichi flinched and kicked against his bonds when the blade - fake or not - peirced through his left eye; he screamed so loud that he stopped hearing it, "-but won't."

"Red sands... Son of a bitch...!" Junichi swore when the blade was taken from his eye, and he found that he could still see even though his attacker hadn't touched his face this time. He was unable to speak for a couple moments as he recuperated from the horrible pain. He didn't have long to recover before the sword came down slantways across his chest, causing him to throw his head back and grit his teeth; except this time he didn't scream. "I've suffered being laughed at by a bunch of snotty children. I've even survived growing up with a name like Shit-face. This pain is nothing really; it won't even leave any lasting damage, physical or psychological."

This continued for nearly fourty minutes, when Junichi finally reacted to the torture. Though. rather than cry or beg, he began to chuckle until he was barking with laughter. With a snarl, the Sand ninja stabbed the still glowing blade through Junichi's heart and held it there, glaring into the teen's eyes with a cold fury. "How dare you rob me of my screams?"

"You must not realize who I am, because then you'd know my other name. This one I kind of like, actually." Junichi laughed around the califaction in his chest, covering the pain with adrenalin and bravado. "Some call me 'The Devil's Child Who was Borne of the Flame'. What's a lit match going to do to a person who's entire existance is a world of fire?" His heart beat like a hammer through the illusion of the flaming sword, but he knew that if this was all the man could bring to the table, then he'd be able to stomach every bite with no problem.

Silence filled the pungent room as the Sand ninja glared into Junichi's eyes, pulling back the handle of a sword with no blade. Then, without muttering another word he crossed to the furnace, which was no longer burning, and tossed the handle inside with a loud bang. Pausing to glance back at the captive, he instead reached for the handle of a panel in the wall; upon opening it a cloud of white gas came out. Though Junichi had to crane his neck to see what was inside, he couldn't help but shiver at the sudden cold that had over taken the room. His eyes grew wide whe the Sand ninja returned with what looked like a weight off of a barbell held in his bare hand; it looked to be so cold that chilled steam was coming off of it. "Why fight fire with fire, when ice works just as well? Maybe... _**better**_?"

Junichi hissed and seemed to crumple into himself when the metal touched his bare flesh - it was so cold it felt like it burned through to his soul! Unable to contain it any longer, he threw his head back and screamed in agony. It was almost worse than the freezing hell when the Sand ninja pulled the disk away and licked his lips as if eating something absolutely delicious, his cold eyes sparkling in the gloom of the torture chamber. As before, his skin was not frozen by the contact and no pain lingered afterwards. Sadly, the only thing that came out of the teen for the next fourty-odd minutes was more screaming and thrashing, much to the creepy man's delight.

Junichi had a moment to catch his breath when the as of yet unnamed Sand ninja returned to the wall to put away the frozen disk, shutting the refridgeration panel with a snap. The teen breathed hard as he watched the inhuman ninja retrieve a pair of metal rods from a box on the floor under the icey panel; he glared hatefully when the man touched the tips together and pulled them apart with a string of electricity buzzing in the air between them. It had to be more illusion, but he'd still have to feel the electricity as it arced through his body as if it were real. "Fuck you, creep..." he mumbled weakly. There was drool on his mouth, but he wasn't in any kind of state to worry about it.

"You-" but the ninja hesitated, staring at Junichi as if he'd just performed an amazing magic trick. "No one has ever made it this far without passing out or losing all mental facilities before! You really are the son of the devil!"

An unexpected screech filled the room, drawing both of the inhabitant's attention to the thick door separating the torture chamber from the rest of the mansion. When it was fully opened, two men dressed in the Sunagakure uniform strolled through, leading in a woman and two more rear guards. "Stand down for a moment, Kariki." the important-seeming ninja in the middle commanded with the motion of her hand. Kariki - Junichi repeated the name many times in his head in hopes of commiting it to memory - grumbled, but did as ordered by scurrying into the corner and falling to his knee.

"Untie the boy for a moment." the obvious jounin directed to one of the guards, who reacted without question. Junichi groaned and nearly fell forward onto his face when the straps were removed, but found himself caught by one of the lead guards; a woman with hair that smelled like honey - too sweet after his having grown accustomed to the strench in the room. "Little Noriyama; look into my face, boy." the female jounin demanded briskly.

"Fuck... you..." Junichi whispered weakly, his arms hanging limp at his sides despite finally gaining his freedom. "...not doing anything until... get some water. ...throat's dry..." The woman who'd caught him could help but whisper that she didn't expect that he could still made demands after suffering from Kariki's assault.

"I assumed I was just seeing things in the monitor that weren't actually happening, but I'm impressed." the jounin mentioned evenly. "Give him the water, just for making it to this point." The kunoichi at Junichi's side accepted the canteen from one of her allies, who'd taken it from the teen's belongings on the floor; seeing as how he couldn't move his arms from having them pinned behind him for so long, she had no choice but to pop the top and hold the canteen for him as he drank. When the canteen was again on the floor, the jounin walked up to Junichi and roughly grabbed him by the hair, "You may not remember it, but we've met before. My name is Zourin of the Quivering Palm. You and I used to get along quite well, you know? Of course you were little more than a mindless puppet at the time..." Zourin announced as she lifted her other hand to show an open palm to Junichi, who could only stare back in horror. Dotting her hand were several large holes, each deeper and darker than the torture chamber in which the ninja occupied. "Those times were so productive that the generous Kazekage has given me special permission to make a come back." Junichi wanted to get up and punch Zourin, but he found that the metallic echo to the jounin's voice was so mesmerizing that all he wanted to do was sit back and listen to it some more. He wasn't even aware when the female guard returned to his side and began soothing him with the tips of her fingers in his hair. "My blood carries a unique trait that allows me to encase the minds of lesser beings in an entrancing melody; listen to the tones of my voice as music in your soul. Let it move you. Take you to another place, down deep in your own mind."

Junichi let his breath out slowly through his nose and let the tingles overflow through his body, delighting in the comforting feeling that he got from it. The music was lovely indeed, but it wasn't the cause of the tingles. They felt more like rain drops on his skin, spreading over his body until he was caccooned safely in an aura mystifiably reminescent of Suzumia Koyoko. The woman from the Hidden Rain. All at once his eyes refocused and the lethargy in his limbs melted away - he was himself again. Suffering a brief instant of fear and worry over where he was and how long he was out this time, Junichi was surprised to see that he was still in the torture chamber with the Advanced Bloodline assassin washing him with chakra.

"Kya- hey!" the woman who was still cradling him in her arms complained when he shoved her aside with her shoulder, yanking off the headband she wore around her neck in the process; this he swung with all of his might at the jounin's elbow before the girl could even regain her footing. As expected, the woman was quick enough to pull her arm back to prevent injury, but in doing so was forced to break her jutsu and create a pocket of empty space between her body and the captive. Junichi was off like a shot through the tiny window of opportunity presented to him, dodging under the jounin's arm to make a direct line for the door, knowing that the second lead guard couldn't reach him through Zourin's body. One of the rear guards moved to intercept him, but Junichi pursed his lips and spat out a stream of water that he'd saved from his drink; the chuunin instictively dodged the spray should it be a water technique, but only gave Junichi a clear path.

"_Shuunshin no jutsu_!" he grunted desperately as he put the necessary seals together and threw himself with all of his speed. Pain flared through his body when he crashed into the last rear guard who'd positioned himself in the way with a kunai drawn; both ninja tumbled through the door and rolled into a heap. They were both hurting - neither moved. Finally Junichi shifted and groaned in effort as he struggled to stand; yet when he was up to his knees a crushing blast of wind struck him so hard that he was blown off of the ground and slammed into the cement wall of the hallway he'd been escorted down some time ago. "Shit!" he swore as he threw himself to the side, narrowly avoiding a tremendously powerful kick from Zourin of the Quivering Palm. No longer thinking rationally, Junichi allowed desperation to take control of his body, forcing it to begin running in whatever direction he was facing in despite knowing that turning his back on a jounin was the stupidest thing he could ever do.

Zourin watched as three of the remaining chuunin guardsmen left the chamber before directing them towards the staircase Junichi had just taken; she let the middle-ninja chase down the boy while she did something just as important. Kneeling down, Zourin checked to ensure that the fourth man was still breathing - he was unconscious, but alive. Standing, the jounin reentered the torture chamber and regarded the twisted specialist who was in the process of shifting through Junichi's belongings. "You didn't even move to help restrain the kid." Zourin accused dangerously, though the sinister ninja hardly seemed affected.

"I wouldn't dream of assuming that a jounin as powerful as you needed help from me to capture a genin of the Hidden Rain." the hunched man chuckled wheezily. "I'm just a troll living in the dungeons, only kept around to torment the worms who anger our Lord." Kariki rasped in a barb, acidly throwing back the same words that Zourin had once said to him.

"The pungent stench in here must be corroding your brain, you wretch. I order you to take the casualty to the hospital, if only to get some fresh air in your rotted lungs." Zourin commanded with a wave of her hole-speckled hand. "I have urgent news for the Kazekage that he will not appreciate hearing. Throw that shit away while you're at it!" she added in mention of Junichi's abandoned gear.

- Kazekage's chambers -

The wind-shadow already didn't look pleased when Zourin was permitted through the ornate doorway. Dropping to one knee, the jounin prostrated herself before the leader of the village with as much fealty as she could muster. When he was finally ready to speak, the kage snapped his fingers to get the woman to look up at him, "I assume that your Melodic Enrapturement jutsu went as planned, Zourin?"

"Sir, my genjutsu failed." Zourin admitted bravely, her eyes never straying from the Kazekage's face for a second. "Actually, sir; there's something that you need to know about the Noriyama orphan. There's already a mind-controlling jutsu in place - one strong enough to counter mine. I was only able to feel it for a moment, but it had the signiture of the Hidden Rain written all over it."

The Yondaime narrowed his eyes a split second before he had the woman in a vice-like strangle hold, lifting her clear off of the floor with one hand. Zourin didn't struggle in his grip, she merely allowed herself to hang in his grip as she stared down into his eyes; she showed no fear whatsoever. Thankfully he regained his composure in time to set the jounin down before she suffocated. "Zourin. I want you and your guards out at the Benizani Crossroads in the Land of Puddles four days from now. This is an assassination mission of the highest priority."

"Your will be done, Kazekage-sama." Zourin alleged before turning and leaving the bedroom. The letter containing the response from the Hidden Rain still lay open on the desk across from him, the details of Hanzo's cooperation decoded by the code-crackers of his village.

- Kazekage's mansion -

Junichi cried out more in surprise than pain when he slammed into someone who'd been stalking through the hallway above the basement. It was then that he realized he'd finally run out of luck - he was caught and there was no hope for him left. Except for the fact that the person yelling at him through the fog in his mind sounded extremely familliar, and not in a bad way. "What the hell, you idiot? I come all this way to find you and you slam into me like some blind monkey! What are you doing running so fast through my house. Why don't you have a shirt on!" he heard. Finally risking a peek, he was astounded to see that he was being berrated by a fiesty young blonde girl with turquoise eyes and four prickly shoots of hair on her head.

"Temari-chan?" he chuckled weakly, hardly believing the chances. It might sound cowardly, but she might be the one person who could save his life right now. "H-hey, I'm glad that I ran into you. You won't believe that a gang of girls were so happy to see me that they ripped apart my clothes and are trying to..."

"I'm not buying it, Junichi." Temari cut him off with a firm tone as she climbed back to her feet and narrowed her eyes at him. "You've probably been in the Hidden Rain for so long that you forgot how hot it got here during the day - I'll bet that you took your shirt off to cool off and someone took it to be an ass. I'm also thinking that you came in here to borrow one from Kankurou, but you got chased away for some reason." she guessed, her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes shut in superiority. "Gaara probably."

"That's creepy how you can figure out stuff like that, Temari-chan." Junichi chuckled as he also climbed to his feet, finally having caught his breath long enough to settle his slamming heart. "Do you think that you could help me get a new shirt?" He just had to stay near her and the chuunin wouldn't dream of recapturing him in her presence - no one dared cross one of the children of the Kazekage.

Before he even realized that she'd lost her temper again, Temari had him pinned to the wall with her arm across his neck - though she had to angle it up sharply to do so. "I can't believe you'd think that I'd believe something so stupid! My father told me everything that you did..."

Junichi sighed heavily and let his body go limp against the wall as he gazed down into Temari's eyes, now shining with hot rage. ...and betrayal? Well, he did kind of act like an asshole; but in his defence it was really the only thing he knew from growing up as Noriyama Junichi, son of the Burning Pair. Finally he proffered a genuine smile as he reached up and gently rubbed his hand through the girl's silky hair. "I'm sorry, Temari-chan." That was all he could think to say, without even knowing that it was all he had to say to his friend. Looking up into his eyes, Temari returned the smile as she took her arm away from his neck and instead wrapped both of them around him in a hug. "So, about that new shirt..." Junichi muttered with a hesitant chuckle.


End file.
